The stock market in Canada continued to fall for the third consecutive session on Tuesday, as investors remained concerned about a looming recession. The TSX Composite Index dived by 252 points, or 1.2%, in the last session to 19,990, closing below the key psychological level of 20,000 for the first time in three weeks. While stock market sectors like healthcare and technology witnessed sharp losses, weakness in commodity-linked stocks also dragged the market down due mainly to the ongoing selloff in commodity prices.
Notably, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures prices tanked to their lowest level in 2022 yesterday after the U.S. energy information administration, in its latest short-term energy outlook report, said that the crude oil production in 2023 is likely to remain slightly higher than expected.
Top TSX movers and active stocks
Cannabis stocks like Canopy Growth (TSX:WEED), Cronos Group, and Tilray Brands plunged by more than 12% each on December 6, making them the worst-performing stocks on the TSX. These massive declines in cannabis stocks came after Marijuana Moment reported that U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized Democrats for trying to include marijuana banking reform in a large-scale defence bill.
It’s important to note that cannabis stocks have remained highly volatile in the last few months amid ongoing speculations about marijuana legalization at the federal level in the United States. With heightened volatility, shares of most cannabis companies have fallen sharply in 2022, led by Canopy Growth stock, which has lost more than 55% of its value on a year-to-date basis.
Fortuna Silver Mines was the only TSX Composite component that managed to climb more than 2% in the last session.
Based on their daily trade volume, Suncor Energy, Algonquin Power & Utilities, Canadian Natural Resources, Manulife Financial, and TC Energy were the most active stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
TSX today
Commodity prices were trading on a mixed note early Wednesday morning, pointing to a flat open today for the resource-heavy TSX index. You may want to keep a close eye on the Bank of Canada’s latest interest rate decision this morning, which could give further direction to stocks. Most experts expect the Canadian central bank to hike the key interest rate by 50 basis points this time.
On the corporate events front, companies like Descartes Systems, Dollarama, and North West Company are set to announce their latest quarterly results on December 7.
