Canada's main stock index fell on Thursday as the country's economic growth stagnated in February due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index slumped 302.47 points, or 2%, to reach noon Thursday at 14,925.64.
The Canadian dollar decreased 0.09 cents to 71.96 cents U.S.
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Crescent Point Energy, which jumped 20.5 cents, or 11.3%, to $2.015, and Shawcor, which up 19 cents, or 9.2%, to $2.13
Gildan Activewear fell $2.11, or 9.5%, the most on the TSX, to $20.17, after multiple brokerages cut price target on the stock after its first-quarter sales fell and on grim forecast.
The second-biggest decliner was BRP, down $3.64, or 8.4%, to $39.46.
The most heavily traded shares by volume were Bombardier, flat at 48 cents, Baytex Energy, up 3.5 cents, or 8%, to 48 cents, and Cenovus Energy, up a penny to $5.01.
It’s a busy day on the economic calendar.
Statistics Canada reported that, following three months of growth, real gross domestic product was essentially unchanged in February, as declines particularly in educational services, and disruptions in the transportation and warehousing sector stalled the economy.
The agency says declines particularly in educational services, and disruptions in the transportation and warehousing sector stalled the economy. Excluding these two sectors, the economy would have grown 0.2%. Overall, 13 out of the 20 sectors increased in February.
The agency is also saying its March industrial product price index was down 0.9% in March, driven primarily by lower prices for refined petroleum energy products, while the Raw Materials Price Index fell 15.6%, mostly due to lower prices for crude oil.
Meantime, the average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $1,046 in February, little changed from January. On a year-over-year basis, earnings rose 3.7%, mostly the result of increases observed from May to October 2019.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange docked 3.29 points to 474.07.
All 12 TSX subgroups were negative midday, with utilities down 3.1%, financials lower by 2.4%, and real-estate, off 2.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Thursday, the last day of April, as investors digested another round of dismal economic data along with the latest batch of major tech earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 330.9 points, or 1.3%, to 24,302.96.
The S&P 500 slipped 31.45 points, or 1.1%, to 2,908.06.
The NASDAQ Composite sank 36.48 points to 8,880.05.
Big tech shares bucked the negative trend in the market after Facebook and Microsoft reported promising revenue figures despite the global coronavirus outbreak.
Both Facebook and Microsoft reported promising revenue figures despite the global coronavirus outbreak.
Facebook jumped more than 5% after it reported that, after an initial “significant” pullback in advertising revenues in March thanks to COVID-19, it’s seen sales stabilize in the first three weeks of April. It reported first-quarter per-share earnings of $1.71 and revenues of $17.74 billion.
Microsoft rose about 0.6% after the company reported fiscal third-quarter sales growth of 15% thanks to growth in its cloud business. The software giant said in a statement that the disease “had minimal net impact on the total company revenue” in the three months ended March 31, but cautioned that “effects of COVID-19 may not be fully reflected in the financial results until future periods.”
The U.S. Labor Department said another 3.84 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the six-week total to more than 30 million. U.S. consumer spending also dropped 7.5% in March on a year-over-year basis.
The sharp rise in jobless claims and the precipitous drop in consumer spending come as businesses are forced to shut down and consumers stay home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury eked higher, lowering yields to 0.59% from Wednesday’s 0.61%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices jumped $2.96 to $18.02 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices improved $2.40 to $1,715.30 U.S. an ounce.
