Stocks in Toronto remained in the red by noon ET Friday, dragged down by commodity-linked shares, as hawkish commentary from major central banks this week heightened fears of a global recession.
The TSX Composite jettisoned 209.75 points, or 1.1%, to pause for lunch Friday at 19,390.88.
The Canadian dollar removed 0.18 cents at 73.04 cents U.S.
Health-care sustained the worst blows, with Bausch falling 79 cents, or 7.5%, to $9.75, while Chartwell Retirement Residences off 23 cents, or 2.8%, to $8.00.
Energy also had a rough morning of it, with Spartan Delta sliding 92 cents, or 6%, to $14.41, while Paramount Resources backslid $1.52, or 5.4%, to $26.69.
In matters macroeconomic, Statistics Canada reported that October wholesale trade rose 2.1% to $83.4 billion in October. The agency went on to say the largest increases were in the miscellaneous goods, the building material and supplies, and the personal and household goods subsectors.
Foreign investors acquired $8.5 billion of Canadian securities in October, following a significant divestment of $22.5 billion in September. Meanwhile, Canadian investors reduced their holdings of foreign securities by $1.7 billion, after buying $10.4 billion in September.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange stepped back 2.24 points to 568.55.
All but one of the 12 subgroups lost ground, with health-care giving back 3.3%, energy plummeting 3.1%, and communications weakening 1.2%.
The lone gainer was in gold, up 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks were lower Friday as investors continued to sell into year-end on fears a recession is ahead next year because of the Federal Reserve’s unrelenting rate hiking.
The Dow Jones Industrials crumbled 465.32 points, or 1.4%, to move into noon hour at 32,736.90
The S&P 500 dipped 60.12 points, or 1.5%, to 3,835.63
The NASDAQ Composite Index dropped 149.57 points, or 1.4%, to 10,660.95.
Trading could be especially volatile Friday with a large amount of options set to expire.
The selloff was broad-based, with just 14 names in the S&P 500 trading in positive territory. The real-estate sector was off 3%, while energy backpedaled 2%.
Meanwhile, shares of Meta rose 5% after JPMorgan upgraded shares of the social media company to overweight from neutral. Shares of Adobe outperformed, up 6%, after the design software firm posted fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and guidance that topped expectations.
With these latest declines, the indexes are poised to notch a second consecutive week of losses. The S&P 500 is off more than 2% for the week and about 5% for the month of December as hopes for a year-end rally fizzle.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury tumbled, raising yields to 3.49% from Thursday’s 3.45%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices docked $2.04 to $74.07 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices restored 11 dollars to $1,798.80 U.S. an ounce.
