Canadian equities fell on Thursday as a downturn in gold and silver prices put pressure on metal mining shares, with investors also awaiting a speech by U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. The S&P/TSX Composite Index plunged by 84 points, or 0.4%, yesterday to settle at 23,037, essentially reversing the gains from the previous session.
On the one hand, many real estate stocks witnessed optimism after the release of better-than-expected U.S. existing home sales data for July. On the other hand, heavy losses in other key sectors like mining, technology, and consumer cyclicals dragged the TSX benchmark down.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Denison Mines, NovaGold Resources, Energy Fuels, and K92 Mining dived by at least 4.9% each, making them the worst-performing TSX stocks for the day.
Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSX: TD) also fell 2.1% to $79.59 per share after its latest quarterly earnings missed Street analysts’ expectations by a narrow margin. In the quarter ended in July 2024, the bank’s total revenue jumped 8.9% from a year ago to $14.2 billion with the help of the strong performance of its wealth management and Canadian banking operations.
Although TD Bank’s adjusted quarterly earnings of $2.05 per share reflected a 3% year-over-year increase, it fell short of Street’s estimates of $2.07 per share as the anti-money-laundering provision and higher non-interest expenses affected its U.S. operations. With this, TD stock is now down 7% year to date.
In contrast, Badger Infrastructure Solutions and International Petroleum climbed by at least 2.8% each, making them the day’s top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Shares of railway companies Canadian National Railway (TSX: CNR) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (TSX: CP) remained volatile after both said that they have locked out members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference from their Canadian rail networks, leading to a temporary shutdown of their operations.
Later in the day, however, both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific initiated plans to resume railway operations after the Canadian Minister of Labour directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to impose final, binding arbitration. Both companies remain focused on restoring their operations to full strength, which helped shares of CNR and CP end the day with minor gains of 0.6% and 0.8%, respectively.
Based on their daily trade volume, Suncor Energy, Enbridge, Canadian Natural Resources, Manulife Financial, and TD Bank were the five most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Commodity prices were largely mixed early Friday morning, pointing to a flat open for the resource-heavy main TSX index today.
In addition to the domestic monthly retail sales numbers, Canadian investors will closely monitor the latest U.S. home sales data and Jerome Powell’s comments about the economic outlook during his speech at the 2024 Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium.
Market movers on the TSX today
