Equities in Canada’s largest market fell on Thursday in a broad-based selloff, with technology and commodity-linked stocks weighing the most after U.S. economic data triggered fresh concerns over the U.S. Federal Reserve’s continued rate hike trajectory.
The TSX Composite tumbled 222.24 points, or 1.1%, to stagger into Thursday noon hour at 19,348.86.
The Canadian dollar subsided 0.26 cents at 73.20 cents U.S.
Techs took it on the chin, with BlackBerry down 25 cents, or 4.9% to $4.85, and leading declines.
Elsewhere, Superior Plus topped the index, gaining 44 cents, or 4.5%, to $10.24, after the natural gas supplier is set to acquire Certarus Ltd for $1.05 billion
including debt.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada said its Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours was little changed in October (-5,400), following an increase of 96,400 (+0.5%) in September.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange pointed downward 4.47 points to 566.29.
All 12 subgroups were losers first thing Thursday, with health-care dropping 3.1%, information technology clicking 2.7% lower, and consumer discretionary stocks off 1.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell Thursday as a year-end selloff returned to Wall Street following a brief respite this week.
The Dow Jones Industrials faltered 494.29 points, or 1.5%, to reach noon hour EST Thursday at 32,880.48
The S&P 500 backpedaled 76.23 points, or 2% at 3,802.21.
The NASDAQ Composite Index collapsed 301.64 points, or 2.8%, to 10,407.73.
This decline follows a 526-point rally in the Dow on Wednesday after better-than-expected earnings from Nike and FedEx, as well as strong consumer sentiment data for December. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite each surged 1.5% Wednesday.
However, the selling returned Thursday as investors remained concerned that further monetary tightening from central banks around the world will push the economy into a recession. Tech shares led the losses, with semiconductor companies such as Lam Research collapsed more than 5% and KLA was down more than 3%.
CarMax shares dropped more than 7% after the used car retailer missed profit and revenue expectations. Micron Technology shares slipped 3% on disappointing quarterly results, dragging down other chip stocks. One-time meme stock darling AMC dropped 16% after announcing a capital raise.
Micron shares fell 3% after the semiconductor maker missed earnings estimates and said it’s facing dwindling demand for its products.
So far in December, the Dow is down 4.3%, while the S&P 500 has fallen 6% and NASDAQ tumbled 8.%. All three major averages are slated to break a three-year win streak and post their worst yearly performance since 2008.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained slightly, lowering yields to 3.66% from Wednesday’s 3.67%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices nosed upward six cents to $78.35 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices staggered $20.50 to $1,804.90 U.S. an ounce.