The stock market in Canada continued to fall for the second consecutive session on Thursday amid growing macroeconomic uncertainties. The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended the session with 256 points, or 1.3% losses, at 18,979. A weak domestic purchasing managers index data for September and worse-than-expected jobless claims from the U.S. market seemingly kept Canadian stock investors on their toes. As a result, sectors like consumer non-cyclicals, utilities, financials, and technology sectors mainly led the market selloff.
Top TSX movers and active stocks
Sleep Country Canada (TSX: ZZZ) tanked by 6.3% to $22.96 per share, making it the worst-performing TSX stock in the last session. This sharp selloff came after Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce trimmed its target price on Sleep Country stock from $35 per share to $29 per share, hurting investors’ sentiments. With this, the shares of the Brampton-headquartered specialty sleep retailer now trade with 39% year-to-date losses amid signs of an economic slowdown.
Shares of Capital Power, ECN Capital, SNC-Lavalin Group, Saputo, and George Weston were also among the bottom performers on the exchange, as they fell by at least 5% each.
On the flip side, Canadian cannabis stocks like Tilray Brands, Canopy Growth, and Cronos Group were the top-performing stocks yesterday, as they skyrocketed by 32.6%, 23.4%, and 15.1%, respectively. This massive rally in shares of cannabis companies came after U.S. president Joe Biden, in an apparently surprising move, granted a pardon for the offence of simple marijuana possession.
Based on the daily trade volume numbers, Suncor Energy, Royal Bank of Canada, Canopy Growth, and Barrick Gold were the most active TSX Composite components on October 6.
TSX today
Commodity prices across the board were trading on a mixed to slightly negative note early Friday morning, pointing to a flat open for the commodity-heavy TSX benchmark today. On the economic data front, Canadian investors may want to keep an eye on the domestic monthly employment change numbers this morning, along with unemployment rate and non-farm payrolls numbers from the U.S. market.
Also, Canadian companies like Tilray Brands and MTY Food Group are expected to release their latest quarterly results on October 7.
