The woes continued for stocks on Canada’s largest market, as health-care stocks took the brunt of the selloff.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index collapsed 90.75 points to end Thursday at 15,860.92
The Canadian dollar gained 0.24 cents to 81.51 cents U.S.
Health-care stocks sustained the most damage, as Canopy Growth slipped $3.60, or 11.6%, to $27.42, while Cannabis Wheaton faltered 19 cents, or 8.8%, to $1.98.
Consumer staples took some hits, too, as Restaurant Brands International lost 51 cents to $73.79, while Metro slid $1.20, or 2.9%, to $39.96.
Utilities got slammed as well, as Fortis Inc. shed 77 cents, to 1.8%, to $42.69.
Financial information company Thomson Reuters was down 20 cents, or to $53.03, after some analysts cut their ratings.
Rating agency Standard & Poor's also placed the company on credit watch "negative" from "stable," and Moody's Investor Service put its rating on review for a downgrade. The company on Tuesday announced a deal to sell 55% of its Financial & Risk business to Blackstone Group
Only tech stocks shone a positive light, as BlackBerry advanced 23 cents, or 1.5%, to $15.83, while Constellation Software jumped $9.77, or 1.2%, to $804.88.
On the economic slate, Markit Canada’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index picked up to 55.9 in January from 54.7 in December, to remain well above the 50.0 no-change threshold. Moreover, the latest PMI reading signaled the joint-strongest improvement in business conditions since April 2011.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange plummeted 20.64 points, or 2.4%, to 843.71
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower on the day, with health-care issues ailing 5.9%, consumer staples wilting 1.8%, and utilities off 1.5%.
The lone gainer was information technology, galloping 2.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities pulled back on Thursday as investors worried about rising interest rates
The Dow Jones Industrial gained 37.32 points to 26,186.71, way down from its highs of the day.
The S&P 500 settled in the red 1.83 points to 2,821.98
The NASDAQ ended up losing 25.62 points to 7,385.86. Earlier, the tech heavy index traded 0.4% higher as Facebook shares hit an all-time high. Facebook reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue on Wednesday.
January was the best month for the S&P 500 and Dow since March 2016, while the NASDAQ had its biggest one-month gain since October 2015. The S&P 500 also notched its best January performance since 1997.
Thursday marks the busiest days of the U.S. earnings season, with about 70 companies reporting. Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Visa and Mattel are among the companies scheduled to report. UPS, AutoNation and Blackstone are among the companies that reported before the bell.
Wall Street also looked ahead to Friday’s release of the U.S. government's monthly jobs report. Economists expect the economy to have added 180,000 jobs.
Stocks were also under pressure after the release of weaker-than-expected productivity numbers. The U.S. government said in a preliminary report that fourth-quarter productivity fell 0.1%. Economists expected a gain of 1%.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell sharply, raising yields to 2.78% from Wednesday’s 2.72%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices hiked $1.35 a barrel to $66.08 U.S.
Gold prices improved $11.00 to $1,354.10 U.S. an ounce.
