Equities in Canada’s largest market were punished Thursday, amid suspense interest rates were headed higher in near future, with measures taken by government seeming insufficient to stop surging inflation.
The TSX Composite toppled 101.89 points to close Thursday at 19,348.81.
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.21 cents at 72.89 cents U.S.
Shares of Canada Goose tanked 73 cents, or 4.2%, to $16.72, after two brokerages downgraded the stock.
Health-care proved the hardest hit, as Bausch Health Companies handed back 57 cents, or 5.4%, to $10.04, while Tilray doffed six cents, or 2.2%, to $2.64.
In real-estate, Northwest HealthCare units fell 25 cents, or 5.5%, to $4.29, while units of Allied Properties REIT backpedaled $1.06, or 6%, to $16.59.
Financials also took their lumps, with goeasy taking a hard loss, $3.43, or 3.1%, to $108.18, while Brookfield Corporation faded $1.30, or 3%, to $42.64.
Energy tried to lift things, with Baytex Energy surging 28 cents, or 4.6%, to $6.32, while Tamarack Valley picked up 19 cents, or 4.8%, to $4.15.
In communications, BCE corralled 15 cents to $51.47.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada’s industrial product price index rose 0.4% month over month in September, following a 1.9% month-over-month increase in August, while its raw materials price index increased 3.5% in the same month.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 2.02 points to 523.82.
All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups were negative on the session, with health-care suffering 1.8%, real-estate drooping 1.6%, and financials, off 0.9%.
The two gainers were energy, inching up 0.2%, and communications, edging ahead 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks slid on Thursday as Wall Street parsed commentary from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell while monitoring a key milestone for a closely followed bond yield.
The Dow Jones Industrials plummeted 252.22 points to end Thursday at 33,412.86.
The much broader index dropped 36.6 points to 4,278.
The NASDAQ index collapsed 128.13 points, or 1%, to 13,186.17.
Electric vehicle juggernaut Tesla slid more than 9% after the company missed analyst expectations on earnings and revenue in the third quarter. CEO Elon Musk also warned that the company’s Cybertruck will not produce much positive cash flow more than a year after production starts.
Netflix shares, on the other hand, jumped 16% after the streaming giant posted third-quarter earnings that beat estimates. The company got a boost from strong ad-tier subscriptions.
Beyond technology stocks, AT&T climbed more than 6% after beating expectations for the third quarter, while investment firm Blackstone slid 7.9% on a weaker-than-expected report.
Powell said inflation was still too high and would likely require lower economic growth. But he also noted recent data showed progress toward slowing prices.
“Incoming data over recent months show ongoing progress toward both of our dual mandate goals —maximum employment and stable prices,” he said.
Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims came in under 200,000, another sign of continued strength in the economy despite higher interest rates.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury sagged, raising yields to 4.98% from Wednesday’s 4.91%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices leaped $2.16 to $90.48 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices eked higher $19.80 to $1,988.10.