Canadian stocks were trading flat on Thursday, as gains in utilities offset the losses in energy stocks, while robust U.S. GDP data defied dire warnings of a recession that have lingered since 2022.
The TSX Composite fell 45.72 points midday Thursday to 18,902.13.
The Canadian dollar skidded 0.16 cents at 72.32 cents U.S.
Utilities led gains among sectors, boosted by a nearly 3% rise in energy infrastructure company Canadian Utilities’ stock on better-than-expected earnings in the third quarter. Canadian Utilities’ shares took on 48 cents, or 1.7%, to $29.32.
On the economic calendar, payroll numbers roll out for August from Statistics Canada. The agency said the number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer declined by 46,800, or 0.3%, in August, following little change in July.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange let go of 1.73 points to 516.58.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were negative as morning became afternoon, information technology sagging 2%, while materials lost 1.4%, and gold fell 1.2%.
The five gainers were led upward by utilities, ahead 1%, while financials were richer 0.7%, and real-estate registered growth of 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Thursday, while the NASDAQ Composite dropped deeper into correction territory as Meta became the latest tech company to report quarterly results that did not quite live up to investors’ expectations.
The Dow Jones Industrials dropped 204.05 points to move into noon hour EDT at 32,831.88.
The S&P 500 index slid 46.14 points, or 1.1%, to 4,140.63. With Thursday’s loss, the much broader is now off by more than 10% from its July high.
The NASDAQ tumbled 224.57 points, or 1.8%, to 12,596.69, dropping below its 200-day moving average for the first time since March.
Following a 2.4% decline on Wednesday, the NASDAQ is now officially in correction territory, down more than 10% from its high close for the year in July.
Thursday’s losses were kept in check, however, as third-quarter gross domestic product came in much stronger than expected. U.S. GDP grew at a 4.9% annualized clip from July through September, while economists polled by Dow Jones forecast 4.7%.
Facebook-parent Meta beat on top and bottom lines in the third quarter, but the company noted that it was seeing some advertising softness so far this quarter. Investors also worried about cost control with the company’s Reality Labs division, which shed $3.7 billion throughout the quarter. Meta shares slid more than 3%.
The moves follow a brutal trading session Wednesday, which was partly driven by a 9.5% decline in Google-parent Alphabet. Alphabet’s Class-A shares suffered their worst day since March 2020 on Wednesday after the company reported revenue in its Google cloud unit that came in below analyst estimates.
Major earnings are also on the horizon, with Amazon scheduled to post results after the close.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury progressed, lowering yields to 4.88% from Wednesday’s 4.95%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices skidded $1.35 to $84.04 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dulled four dollars to $1,990.90.