Canada’s main stock index fell on Wednesday as gold miners and energy companies declined, while domestic data on the housing sector and wholesale trade pointed to slowing economic growth.
The TSX fell 41.17 points to pause for lunch Wednesday at 20,663.62, having come off its lows of the morning.
The Canadian dollar backpedaled 0.37 cents to 74.58 cents U.S.
In earnings, Barrick Gold beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit and also announced a new share repurchase of up to $1 billion. However, its stock fell 93 cents, or 3.9%, to $22.85, mirroring weakness in the sector.
Suncor Energy gained 44 cents, or nearly 1%, to $46.82, after the energy behemoth reported a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit, helped by higher crude prices.
Bausch + Lomb jumped $2.18. or 9.6%, to $24.92, after the eye-care company named Brent Saunders, the former chief executive of Allergan, as its CEO and chairman.
Converge Technology Solutions plunged 77 cents, or 14.1% to the bottom of the TSX at $4.70, as multiple brokerages cut price target on the stock following its preliminary results for full-year 2022.
Macroeconomically speaking, Statistics Canada reported manufacturing sales fell 1.5% in December, mainly on lower sales of petroleum and coal product, wood product and food industries.
Wholesale sales fell 0.8% to $82.2 billion in December. Declines in the machinery, equipment and supplies subsector and the miscellaneous goods subsector led the losses.
CMHC informed us that the standalone monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of total housing starts for all areas in Canada declined 13% in January (215,365 units) compared to December (248,296 units).
According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, national home sales declined 3% month-over-month in January. Actual (not seasonally adjusted) monthly activity came in 37.1% below January 2022.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange sank 2.44 points to 617.74.
The 12 subgroups were evenly divided, with health-care sprinting 4.5%, information technology, up 2%, and consumer staples, ahead 0.9%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by gold, down 2.6%, materials, subsiding 1.8% ,and energy, off 1.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks were mixed Wednesday as investors mulled the latest retail sales report, which came in higher than expected, a day after the release of January’s hotter-than-anticipated consumer price index.
The Dow Jones Industrials fell 143.07 points, to break for lunch Wednesday at 33,946.20, weighed down by shares of Chevron and Devon Energy, which slumped with oil prices.
The S&P 500 faded 13.06 points to 4,123.07.
The NASDAQ Composite regained 8.5 points to 11,968.60, boosted by shares of Airbnb, which surged 12% after beating earnings expectations. Gains in Tesla, Rivian and Lucid also helped lead the index higher.
January retail sales rose 3%, while economists polled by Dow Jones anticipated a 1.9% increase. The number signals that the U.S. economy is holding up despite increased rate hikes by the Federal Reserve to tame inflation.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury fell hard, raising yields to 3.81% from Tuesday’s 3.75%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slumbered $1.47 to $77.59 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices stepped back $18.70 to $1,846.70 U.S. an ounce.