The Canadian stock market trended downward on Friday after much stronger-than-expected U.S. labour market data further dimmed the possibility that the Federal Reserve will slash interest rates in the next meeting. The S&P/TSX Composite Index slipped by 34 points in the last session to settle at 21,085.
Even as some big names in the tech sector inched up after receiving rating upgrades from Street analysts, heavy losses in mining, energy, and healthcare stocks pressured the TSX benchmark.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Falling commodity prices drove mining and energy stocks like Interfor, NuVista Energy, Paramount Resources, Innergex Renewable Energy, and Kinross Gold down by at least 3.8% each, making them the worst-performing TSX stocks for the day.
In contrast, shares of Shopify and Aritzia were the top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange, as they climbed by at least 6.6% each.
Brookfield Business Partners (TSX:BBU.UN) also rose 4.2% to $31.03 per share after announcing stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the global business services and industrials firm’s total revenue fell 8.9% from a year ago to US$13.4 billion.
Despite lower revenue, the sale of its nuclear technology services operation and its capital-recycling efforts helped Brookfield Business Partners post strong adjusted quarterly earnings of US$6.57 per share, better than Street analysts’ expectations of US$6.42 per share. After ending 2023 with 19.5% gains, its share prices have already gone up 13.5% so far this year.
Based on their daily trade volume, Enbridge, Capstone Copper, Suncor Energy, B2Gold, and Baytex Energy were the five most heavily traded stocks on the exchange on February 2.
TSX today
Commodity prices across the board were bearish early Monday morning, pointing to a lower open for the resource-heavy main TSX index today. While no major domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors will closely monitor the latest services and nonmanufacturing purchasing managers index data from the United States this morning.
On the corporate events side, TMX Group will announce its latest quarterly results after the market closing bell on February 5. Street analysts expect the Toronto-headquartered company to report quarterly earnings of $0.37 per share with nearly $300 million in revenue.
Market movers on the TSX today
