The Canadian stock market experienced a sharp decline on Wednesday following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s announcement to maintain steady interest rates for now, with hints that anticipated rate cuts could be delayed. The S&P/TSX Composite Index dived by 206 points, or 1%, on the last day of January to 21,022, ending its four-day-long winning streak.
While all key market sectors ended the session in the red territory, heavy losses in healthcare, technology, energy, and bank stocks mainly pulled the TSX benchmark downward.
On the one hand, the Fed chair Jerome Powell said, “We believe that our policy rate is likely at its peak for this tightening cycle.” On the other hand, he also noted that “we are prepared to maintain the current target range for the federal funds rate for longer, if appropriate.”
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Lithium Americas (Argentina), Orla Mining, First Quantum Minerals, and Tilray Brands were the worst-performing TSX stocks yesterday, as they plunged by over 4% each.
On the flip side, Celestica and Jamieson Wellness climbed up by at least 2% each, making them the day’s top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City (TSX:CP) also rose 1.7% to $108.19 per share, a day after announcing its upbeat quarterly financial results. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the Calgary-headquartered railway giant’s total revenue jumped by 53.4% year over year to $3.78 billion with the help of strong gains in its freight revenue.
Despite an increase in operating expenses last quarter, Canadian Pacific delivered $1.18 in adjusted quarterly earnings, exceeding Street analysts’ expectation of $1.13 per share. The company also gave a positive outlook for 2024 with expectations of double-digit growth in its earnings per share. After ending 2023 with about 4% gains, CP stock inched up by 3.2% in January 2024.
Based on their daily trade volume, Enbridge, Manulife Financial, Toronto-Dominion Bank, NexGen Energy, and Bank of Montréal were the five most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Metals prices across the board fell sharply early Thursday morning, which could pressure the TSX mining stocks at the open today.
Besides the Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem’s comments about the economy before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, Canadian investors may also want to closely monitor the important monthly manufacturing and weekly jobless claims data from the United States this morning.
On the corporate events side, several TSX-listed companies, including Canada Goose, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Rogers Communications, and Open Text, are likely to announce their latest quarterly results on February 1.
Market movers on the TSX today
