Canadian equities fell for the fourth straight day as dismal domestic purchasing managers index data and fears of a U.S. recession kept investors on edge despite largely better-than-expected corporate earnings. Even though a bounce back in crude oil and natural gas prices helped the S&P/TSX Composite Index open with over 200 points gain, the benchmark couldn’t maintain this optimism for long, settling with a 98-point, or 0.4%, loss at 21,881.
Despite solid gains in technology stocks, mainly due to Shopify’s (TSX:SHOP) upbeat earnings, continued losses in other key sectors, including mining, healthcare, and real estate, weighed on the TSX index.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
OceanaGold, NovaGold Resources, Ero Copper, and K92 Mining were the worst-performing TSX stocks for the day, diving by more than 6% each.
On the flip side, shares of Shopify rallied by nearly 18% to $87.87 per share, trimming its year-to-date losses to 14.8%. In the quarter ended June 2024, the Ottawa-based e-commerce giant’s total revenue climbed by 20.7% year over year to US$2.05 billion with the help of a significant increase in merchant activity.
In addition, its recent exit from lower-margin logistics businesses and favourable pricing changes also helped Shopify post a solid 85.7% jump in its adjusted quarterly earnings from a year ago to US$0.26 per share, beating Street analysts’ expectations of US$0.20 per share. Moreover, the company’s free cash flow more than doubled last quarter, achieving a margin of 16%, up from 6% the previous year.
iA Financial, Suncor Energy, and Aritzia were also among the session’s top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange, each rising by at least 2.7%.
According to the exchange’s daily trade volume data, Tourmaline Oil, Suncor Energy, Manulife Financial, Enbridge, and Royal Bank of Canada stood out as the five most active stocks.
TSX today
Commodity prices were largely bullish early Thursday morning, which could lift the resource-heavy main TSX index at the open today. While no major domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors may want to keep an eye on the weekly jobless claims data from the United States this morning.
As second-quarter earnings season remains in full swing, several TSX-listed companies, including Maple Leaf Foods, Brookfield, Premium Brands, Restaurant Brands, NuVista Energy, Primo Water, Onex, CI Financial, Boyd Group, Keyera, Quebecor, ATS, MDA, Canadian Tire, goeasy, Jamieson Wellness, Mattr, Power Corporation of Canada, Interfor, B2Gold, Saputo, Altus, Chartwell Retirement Residences, IAMGOLD, SmartCentres REIT, Pembina Pipeline, Linamar, Sienna Senior Living, RioCan REIT, Sleep Country, Exchange Income, Denison Mines, CCL Industries, CES Energy, and Lundin Gold, are likely to announce their latest quarterly results on August 8.
Market movers on the TSX today
