The Canadian stock market rollercoaster continued on Thursday as investors weighed volatile commodity prices alongside mixed corporate earnings and persistent economic concerns. The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell by 235 points, or 0.8%, to settle at 29,869.
Even as some mining and utility stocks showed strength, heavy losses in many other key sectors, such as healthcare, technology, and industrials, dragged the broader index into negative territory.
With nearly a 1.3% week-to-date decline, the TSX benchmark seems on track to conclude its second consecutive week in the red.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
goeasy (TSX: GSY) tanked by 17% to $134.26 per share, making it the day’s worst-performing TSX stock. This selloff in GSY stock came after the Mississauga-based lender reported a 59% drop in its third-quarter earnings to $1.98 per share, also missing Street analysts’ expectations of $4.66 per share by a huge margin.
While goeasy’s revenue climbed 15% year over year to a record $440 million last quarter, higher finance costs and a $43.1 million non-cash loss related to debt instruments weighed significantly on its profitability. Apparently, investors were spooked by early-stage delinquencies due to the challenging economic environment and increased credit loss provisions. On a year-to-date basis, GSY stock is now down nearly 20%.
Curaleaf, TransAlta, and MDA Space also plunged by at least 8% each, making them among the session’s bottom performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
On the brighter side, shares of Lightspeed Commerce (TSX: LSPD) jumped nearly 16% after announcing its upbeat September quarter earnings. The Montreal-based point-of-sale and payments company posted a 15% year-over-year revenue jump — while its gross profit surged 18%, both exceeding guidance.
Expanding adoption of payments and new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered retail features helped Lightspeed post adjusted quarterly earnings of $0.16 per share, along with a notable turnaround in free cash flow. Despite the recent rally, however, LSPD stock is still down 13.4% on a year-to-date basis.
Vermilion Energy, Lundin Mining, and Equinox Gold were also among the top-performing TSX stocks for the day, with each climbing by at least 7.8%.
Based on their daily trade volume, Enbridge, B2Gold, Suncor Energy, Canadian Natural Resources, and TransAlta were the five most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Commodity prices, especially crude oil, gold, and silver, edged up slightly in early trading on Friday, which could offer some support to resource-linked sectors on the TSX at the open today.
While no major economic releases from the U.S. are due, Canadian investors will closely monitor the domestic jobs report for October this morning. The report could influence market sentiment and shape expectations for the Bank of Canada’s next policy move.
On the corporate events front, many TSX-listed large companies, including Constellation Software, Algonquin Power & Utilities, Enbridge, Canadian Utilities, ATCO, Brookfield Asset Management, Emera, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, and Boralex, will release their latest quarterly earnings reports today.
Market movers on the TSX today
