Canada's main stock index on Thursday fell to its lowest in two weeks, led by precious metal miners as gold and silver prices weakened, while investors digested a host of corporate earnings and U.S. economic data.
The TSX Composite Index slumped 37.78 points to greet noon EDT Thursday to 22,601.79, its lowest since July 11.
The Canadian dollar shed 0.03 at 72.37 cents U.S.
In corporate news, bitcoin miner Bitfarms said it has adopted a second 'poison pill' after a Canadian tribunal ceased the earlier one adopted to prevent a potential hostile takeover attempt by rival Riot Platforms. Bitfarms shares dropped two cents to $3.59.
Elsewhere, Loblaw Companies dropped $1.24 to $167.75 after the retailer missed estimates for second-quarter revenue, hurt by soft demand for some household items and non-essential products such as apparel.
Mullen Group jumped $1.29, or 9.7%, to $14.56, after logistics provider's earnings beat estimates.
On the economic schedule today, Statistics Canada reported the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours—increased by 41,000 (+0.2%) in May.
The central bank trimmed its key policy rate by 25 basis points, in line with market expectations, and indicated a possibility of more cuts if inflation continues to ease in line with forecasts.
Traders currently see a 62.2% chance of a cut in September.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 6.32 points, or 1.1%, to 570.60.
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly divided between gainers and losers, with gold dulling in price 2.4%, materials sliding 1.3%, and consumer staples off 0.5%.
The half-dozen gainers were led by health-care, sprinting 1.4%, real-estate, up 1.1%, and utilities, ahead 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 rose on Thursday as Wall Street attempted to recover from the index’s worst session since 2022.
The Dow Jones Industrials soared 389.04 points, or 1%, to 40,242.91, led to the upside by a 4% jump in IBM.
The S&P 500 index recovered 31.87 points to 5,458.59.
The NASDAQ climbed out into plus territory 64.43 points to 17,406.84.
Advanced Micro Devices lost 2%, while mega-cap stocks Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Alphabet fell about 1% each.
Ford Motor shares tumbled 16% and headed for their worst day since 2009 after second-quarter earnings came in much lower than analysts expected. Chipotle slipped 3% despite topping earnings and revenue expectations, while ServiceNow popped 13% on stronger-than-expected earnings and headed for its best day since 2016.
Investors also assessed a second-quarter GDP report that showed the economy grow 2.8%, and much more than expected. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had anticipated growth of 2.1%.
Wednesday’s trading session saw intense declines for the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ, driven by disappointing quarterly reports from Alphabet and Tesla. Both the broad-market index and the tech-heavy benchmark posted their worst session since 2022, while the Dow shed roughly
504 points.
Investors have come to view the recent declines as a sign of an overdue correction in an overbought market, which is now seeing a rotation away from mega-cap tech into small-cap stocks and more cyclical areas.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury popped, lowering yields to 4.24% from Wednesday’s 4.28%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices recovered 58 cents at $78.17 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices scaled back $55.20 to $2,360.50
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