The Canadian stock market turned negative on Thursday after consistently rising in the previous couple of sessions as investors became worried about slowing economic growth after weaker-than-expected U.S. manufacturing and existing home sales data. The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 54 points, or 0.3%, in the last session to settle at 20,437, retracing from its highest level in over two months.
Despite continued strength in utility and energy stocks, heavy losses in other main TSX sectors, like metal mining and technology, kept the market benchmark under pressure.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Nuvei, OceanaGold, Tilray Brands, and Osisko Mining were the worst-performing TSX stocks yesterday, diving by more than 6% each.
Endeavour Silver (TSX: EDR) also plunged 4.2% to $4.77 per share after it announced an update related to its Mexico-based Terronera project’s construction activity. In a press release, the Vancouver-headquartered mining company’s management said that it “expects to award the mill construction contract in Q4, which will kick off the next major construction phase.”
Moreover, Endeavour Silver expects to advance the development of Portal 2 and 4 to gain initial ore access in the first quarter of 2024. Notably, EDR stock rallied about 22% last week after its second-quarter production results managed to impress investors. Year to date, the stock is now up 8.9%.
On the flip side, SNC-Lavalin Group and Africa Oil were among the top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the last session, as they rose more than 3% each.
According to the Canadian exchange’s daily volume data, Manulife Financial, TC Energy, Scotiabank, and TD Bank were the most active stocks.
TSX today
West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures and natural gas prices were trading on a strong bullish note early Friday morning, while metals prices, especially precious metals, were bearish. Given these mixed signals from the commodity markets, I expect the main TSX index to remain flat at the open today.
While no major U.S. economic releases are due, Canadian investors may want to closely monitor the domestic monthly retail sales numbers this morning. Besides that, investors’ expectations from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s upcoming monetary policy event, due next week, could keep stocks volatile.
Market movers on the TSX today
