Canadian Market Extending Losses; TSX Down Nearly 1%

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is down in negative territory a little past noon on Thursday, extending early losses, due to heavy selling in energy, materials and communications sectors.

Several stocks from financials and healthcare sections are also notably lower.

Weak commodity prices are weighing on energy and materials shares.

Investors are digesting earnings announcements from some leading banks. Despite a surge in U.S. tech sector after NVIDIA Corporation forecast $11 billion in sales in the current quarter, technology stocks in the Canadian market are not attracting any significantly strong support.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 161.62 points or 0.8% at 19,766.07 nearly half an hour past noon. The index dropped to a low of 19,717.36.

Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) today reported net income of $3.6 billion for the quarter ended April 30, 2023 , down $604 million or 14% from the prior year. The stock is down by about 2.5%.

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) is down 3.7% after the bank reported adjusted net income of $3,752 million for the second quarter of the current financial year, compared with adjusted net income of $3,714 million in the year-ago quarter.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO) is gaining more than 2%. The bank reported adjusted net income of $1,627 million for the second quarter of this fiscal, compared with adjusted net income of $1,652 million a year ago.

ATS Corporation (ATS.TO), Methanex Corporation (MX.TO), Precision Drilling Corporation (PD.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) and Nutrien (NTR.TO) are down 1.6 to 4%.

Loblaw Companies (L.TO) is down 1.1%. Loblaw has announced plans to purchase five Class 8 T680 hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles or FCEV from Kenworth. The vehicles add to the firm's growing zero-emission fleet as it works to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

On the economic front, a report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business showed Canada's CFIB Business Barometer long-term optimism index increased to 56.4 in May, the highest since June last year from 55.7 in April.

Preliminary data from Statistics Canada showed manufacturing sales in Canada likely dropped 0.2% month-over-month in April, shifting from a 0.7% rise in March.

A separate data from Statistics Canada showed average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees in Canada rose 1.4% year-on-year to $1,185 in March, after an upwardly revised 1.9% advance in the prior month.