Equities in Canada’s largest market took a triple-digit tumble Thursday, as weakness in financial, gold and energy stocks played most heavily into the trading day.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index tumbled 143.07 points to end Thursday at 15,506.47
The Canadian dollar came off its lows, but still finished negative 0.02 cents at 73.42 cents U.S.
In the financial category, Bank of Montreal subsided $3.11, or 3.1%, to $96.59, while Scotiabank docked $2.10, or 2.7%, to $75.31.
Even so, Home Capital Group, which has been feeling the bruises all week, recovered $2.03, or 33.9%, to $8.02.
Gold stocks sank, primarily Goldcorp, which dropped 94 cents, or 4.8%, to $18.78, and Barrick Gold slipped 33 cents, or 1.4%, to $22.72
In the energy field, EnCanada Corp. fell 25 cents, or 1.7%, to $14.48, and Canadian Natural Resources stumbled $1.64, or 3.6%, to $43.43.
Industrials proved one of the few beacons, as Canam Group announced a going-private transaction to a group of investors led by the Dutil family, a deal which caused the stock to climb $5.99, or 96.6%, to $12.19.
On the data front, Statistics Canada reported that weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees barely budged from January to February, coming at $968.00 in February, up 1.5% from 12 months earlier.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange stumbled 6.22 points to 800.45
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were negative on the day, as financials hurtled 1.8% lower, gold stocks were 1.6% to the bad, and energy stocks dwindled in price 1.5%
The four gainers were led by industrials and consumer discretionary issues, each surging 0.6%, and real-estate, moving higher 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks closed higher Thursday, within striking distance of all-time highs, ahead of major tech company earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fought its way higher 6.24 points to conclude the day at 20.981.33. Boeing and UnitedHealth had the greatest positive impact, while Goldman Sachs and Caterpillar contributed the most to losses.
The S&P 500 nicked 1.32 points to 2,388.71. Information technology was among the top S&P 500 performers in early afternoon trade, while energy was the worst, dropping more than 1% as oil prices fell about 2% on oversupply concerns.
The NASDAQ Composite gained 23.71 points to 6,048.94. Comcast, PayPal and Amazon.com were among the greatest contributors to gains in the NASDAQ
Ahead of the open, Comcast reported better-than-expected quarterly profit of 53 cents U.S. per share and revenue also above forecasts. Shares climbed nearly 4%, tracking for their best day since Feb. 3, 2016
Alphabet, Amazon.com, Intel, Microsoft, and Starbucks are among companies set to report after the closing bell.
Durable goods orders rose a less-than-expected 0.7% in March. Weekly jobless claims increased more than expected to 257,000. Pending home sales fell 0.8% in March
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note were slightly higher, weighing yields to 2.3% from Wednesday’s 2.31%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slumped 40 cents at $49.22 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices recovered $1.30 at $1,265.50 U.S. an ounce.
