Equities in Canada’s largest centre opened lower on Thursday, a day after falling into correction territory, as weakness in mining shares on the back of weaker metal prices and downbeat earnings from insurer Manulife Financial weighed on sentiment.
The negative trend for the S&P/TSX, as it dived another 220.76 points, or 1.1%, soon after the opening bell to 19,616.49.
The Canadian dollar removed 0.2 cents at 76.75 cents U.S.
As of Thursday’s open, the index was down 10.2% from its March 29 closing record high. A correction is confirmed when an index closes 10% or more below its record closing level.
Canada's biggest life insurers, Manulife Financial and Sun Life Financial, on Wednesday reported core earnings fell from a year ago as the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on their Asian earnings, with Manulife also missing estimates.
Manulife shares lost $2.13, or 8.8%, to 22.22, while Sun Life lost $1.26, or 2%, to $61.46.
CIBC cut the target price on Boyd Group Services to $168.00 from $175.00. Boyd shares dipped $1.56, or 1.2%, to $133.50.
Jefferies raised the target price on Cronos Group to $4.30 from $3.70. Cronos shares ducked four cents, or 1%, to $3.82.
CIBC cut the target price on goeasy Ltd to $180.00 from $200.00. goeasy shares lost $4.62, or 4.4%, to $101.22.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange stumbled 17.43 points, or 2.5%, to 683.47.
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were in minus country in the first hour, with materials giving up 2%, while gold lost 1.9% of its lustre, and financials were poorer by 1.6%.
The four gainers were led by consumer discretionary stocks, up 0.8%, while consumer staples and information technology each jumped 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks traded lower Thursday morning as a selloff on Wall Street continued to push the S&P 500 to its lowest level in more than a year and to the brink of bear market territory.
The Dow Jones Industrials fell 232.91 points to 31,601.20.
The S&P 500 slid 32.91 points to 3,902.27.
The NASDAQ Composite dropped 88.28 points to 11,275.96.
Tech stocks continued to take a beating on Thursday. Apple lost more than 3%, pushing the shares into bear market territory — down 22% from a 52-week high. It came as Saudi Aramco surpassed the tech giant as the world’s most valuable company on Wednesday.
Amazon and Microsoft also fell Thursday, dipping 2% each. Salesforce dropped 3.6%.
On the earnings front, Disney shares dragged down the Dow, falling more than 5% after reporting mixed earnings results and hitting a two-year low.
The media giant reported higher-than-expected streaming subscriber growth, but warned about the COVID impact on parks in Asia. Boeing and American Express also weighed on the Dow, shedding about 4% each.
Rivian Automotive added 8% and Beyond Meat slumped more than 13% on Thursday following quarterly results.
Fresh producer price index data, which measures prices at the wholesale level, rose 11% year over year. That number fell from March but came in above expectations and did little to shake fears of rising inflation.
Treasury prices gained sharply, with yields slumping to 2.86% from Wednesday’s 2.93%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices were unchanged at $105.71 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices tumbled $13.40 to $1,840.30 U.S. an ounce.
Selloff Resumes
