The selloff in the Canadian stocks intensified on Wednesday, as falling commodity prices and the American credit rating agency Fitch’s recent downgrade of the U.S. long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating weighed on investors’ sentiments. As a result, the S&P/TSX Composite Index tanked by 315 points, or 1.5%, yesterday to settle at 20,218, posting its biggest single-day losses since March 15.
Despite some positive corporate results, all main sectors ended the session in the red. But the market selloff was mainly led by heavy losses in technology, mining, and utility stocks.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Shopify (TSX: SHOP) was the worst-performing TSX stock, as it tanked by 7% to $83.39 per share in the last session. These losses in SHOP stock came, as investors awaited the Canadian e-commerce platform provider’s June quarter earnings report, released after the market closing bell.
Surprisingly, Shopify crushed Street analysts’ earnings estimates by reporting US$0.14 per share in adjusted quarterly earnings with the help of a 30.8% increase in sales. Its significantly better-than-expected quarterly profits could help SHOP stock recover in the coming sessions, which is already up over 77% on a year-to-date basis.
Other Canadian tech stocks, like Dye & Durham, Nuvei, and BlackBerry, were also among the worst performers yesterday, as they dived by more than 6% each.
In contrast, Colliers International and Athabasca Oil jumped by at least 5% each, making them the session’s top gainers on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Based on their daily trade volume, Suncor Energy, Enbridge, Shopify, and Athabasca Oil were the most heavily traded stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Most commodity prices, especially crude oil, silver, and copper, were bearish early Thursday morning, which could keep the main TSX index under pressure at the open today. While no key domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors will look forward to the monthly services PMI (purchasing managers index), non-manufacturing PMI, and weekly jobless claims data this morning.
On the corporate events side, TSX-listed companies, including Lightspeed Commerce, Superior Plus, Bausch Health, Canada Goose, SNC-Lavalin, Canadian Natural Resources, Maple Leaf Foods, TransAlta Renewables, BCE, Pembina Pipeline, Gildan Activewear, Interfor, iA Financial, OpenText, and Bombardier, are expected to announce their latest quarterly results on August 3.
Market movers on the TSX today
