Equities in Toronto again felt investor wrath Wednesday, on jitters over inflation, taken out on energy and industrial issues.
The TSX headed downward 73.15 points to conclude Wednesday at 20,366.72.
The Canadian dollar stepped back 0.11 cents to 73.31 cents U.S.
Energy took the biggest body blows, with Vermilion Energy settling 98 cents, or 5.6%, to $16.42, while Headwater Exploration docking 28 cents, or 4.4%, to $6.03.
Among industrials, TFI International let go of $17.33, or 11%, to $139.50, while Bombardier shed $3.25, or 4.7%, to $64.26.
In gold, Alamos Gold lost 24 cents, or 1.4%, to $17.26, while OceanaGold handed over a nickel, or 1.6%, to $3.10.
Tech stocks moved higher, though, with Bitfarms up nine cents, or 6.2%, to $1.54, while CGI Group tallied $5.36, or 4%, to $138.15.
Communications moved forward, with Rogers increasing in price $1.86. or 2.9%, to $66.50, and Quebecor tacked on 27 cents to $34.56.
Consumer discretionary stocks also were in the plus column, Aritzia up $1.58, or 3.8%, to $43.13, while BRP Inc. gained 90 cents to $101.75.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange settled 1.2 points to 602.58.
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were in negative territory, with energy down 2.1%, industrials off 1.6%, and gold losing 1.1%.
The four gainers were led by information technology, up 1.1%, communications ahead 0.9%, and consumer discretionary stocks better by 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 200 points as investors’ worries over First Republic overshadowed their excitement around Big Tech earnings.
The 30-stock stumbled 228.96 points to 33,301.87.
The S&P 500 declined 15.64 points to 4,055.99.
The NASDAQ Composite recovered 55.19 points to 11,854.35, trimming gains after jumping as much as 1.4% in the trading day.
First Republic Bank slid nearly 30%, extending losses after falling almost 50% on Tuesday. The regional bank said late Monday that its deposits dropped 40% to $104.5 billion in the first quarter.
That reignited concerns about the health of the banking system initially prompted by the closure of Silicon Valley Bank last month.
Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that U.S. bank regulators were considering downgrading their assessments of First Republic, which could hinder the bank’s ability to borrow from the Federal Reserve.
Microsoft climbed more than 7% to trade at its highest point in more than a year after beating Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines in its latest quarter. The company also said it saw a big jump in revenue from its Intelligent Cloud business segment. Amazon rose more than 2% as some market participants grew hopeful that the e-commerce giant’s cloud business could also show strong revenue growth.
Alphabet shares finished down 0.1% after trading up earlier in the day. The Google parent posted better-than-anticipated earnings but said revenue grew just 3% from the same period a year ago.
Elsewhere, Chipotle shares jumped nearly 13% to an all-time high on the back of strong earnings.
Demand for long-lasting goods like appliances and computers was higher than economists expected in March, according to data released Wednesday morning, in a sign that the economy is showing resilience. This data point comes ahead of the latest GDP update slated for Thursday and the big Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index — the Federal Reserve’s favored inflation gauge — on Friday.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury were lower, raising yields to 3.44% from Tuesday’s 3.39%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell $2.78 to $74.29 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices brightened $6.20 to $1,998.30 U.S. an ounce.