Canadian equities fell for the fourth consecutive session on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell indicated again that further interest rate hikes could be on their way in 2023. The S&P/TSX Composite Index gave up 48 points, or 0.2%, in the last session to settle at 19,706 despite better-than-expected domestic retail sales numbers.
On the first day of his congressional testimony, Powell noted that “the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go,” acknowledging continued high inflationary pressures. This statement hurt investors’ sentiments, with key TSX sectors like real estate, technology, and consumer cyclicals leading the selloff.
Although a sharp intraday recovery in oil and base metals prices helped commodity-linked stocks rise slightly, it failed to turn the market index green.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Spartan Delta (TSX:SDE) nosedived more than 64% yesterday from $14.99 to just $5.38 per share — making it the worst-performing TSX stock. These massive losses could be a result of Street analysts’ growing pessimism about SDE stock lately.
It’s important to note that analysts at Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, National Bank of Canada, and Haywood Securities have made big downward revisions to their respective target prices for Spartan Delta stock this week so far. With this, SDE stock has given up all its last year’s gains to trade even below 2021’s closing price of $5.77 per share.
Shares of Northwest Healthcare Properties REIT (TSX:NWH.UN) tanked by 11.1% on June 21 to $6.84 per share after it dropped the plan to proceed with a previously announced U.K. joint venture. However, the Toronto-headquartered REIT still plans to “continue to source an alternative partner to recapitalize its U.K. portfolio.” After this selloff, NorthWest Healthcare stock is now down 28% on a year-to-date basis.
Telus International and Nuvei were also among the worst performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange, falling by 4% each.
On the positive side, energy stocks like Advantage Energy and Africa Oil stood out as top-performing TSX Composite components for the day, as they inched up by at least 3.3% each.
Based on their daily trade volume, Suncor Energy, Baytex Energy, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and TC Energy were the most heavily traded stocks.
TSX today
Commodity prices across the board, except for copper, were heading downward early Thursday morning, which could pressure the resource-heavy TSX index at the open today.
While no major domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors may want to keep an eye on weekly jobless claims, crude oil stockpiles, and monthly existing home sales data from the U.S. market this morning. Also, Powell’s congressional testimony will continue for the second day today, which could add to the market volatility.
On the corporate events side, the TSX-listed Empire Company is expected to announce its April quarter financial results on June 22. Bay Street analysts expect the Stellarton-based food retailer to report quarterly net earnings of $0.68 per share with $7.57 billion in revenue.
Market movers on the TSX today
