The Canadian stock market declined for the third straight day after The Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem hinted at the possibility of more interest rate hikes. The S&P/TSX Composite Index tumbled by 95 points, or 0.5%, on Thursday to 20,132, its lowest closing level in more than a week.
In his speech, the Canadian central bank’s chief said, “If we need to raise interest rates further to restore price stability, we are prepared to take further action,” highlighting that “inflation is still too high, and there is little downward momentum in underlying inflation.”
Despite an intraday recovery market sectors like utilities and healthcare, Macklem’s comments about upcoming rate hikes pressured the TSX benchmark with big losses in mining, consumer, and technology stocks.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Shares of BlackBerry (TSX:BB) tanked by 16.3% to $6.37 per share, making it the worst-performing TSX stock for the day. These big losses in BB stock came a day after the Waterloo-based software company released its dismal preliminary quarterly financial results.
BlackBerry expects its revenue for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2024 (ended in August) to be around US$132 million due mainly to weakness in its cybersecurity segment, lower than Street analysts’ current estimate of US$138 million. The Canadian tech firm blamed “elongated sales cycles, particularly in BlackBerry’s core government vertical” for its weak cybersecurity revenue in the August quarter. Yesterday’s selloff trimmed BB stock’s year-to-date gains to 44.4%.
Transcontinental, Bombardier, and Capstone Copper were also among the bottom performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the last session, as they dived by at least 3.9% each.
On the positive side, Storagevault Canada and Precision Drilling gained at least 2.8% each, making them the day’s top-performing TSX Composite components.
Based on their daily trade volume, Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor Energy, Enbridge, Manulife Financial, and TC Energy were the five most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
An early morning recovery in crude oil, natural gas, and precious metals prices is likely to lift the commodity-heavy TSX index at the open today. However, the market benchmark seems on track to end the week in the red, as it has already seen nearly 2% value erosion week to date.
While no important corporate earnings event is due, Canadian investors may want to keep a close eye on the domestic monthly employment change and unemployment rate data this morning.
Market movers on the TSX today
