Canadian Stocks Tumble; TSX Falls To 3-week Low

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market ended sharply sharply lower on Thursday due to heavy selling at several counters, as disappointing earnings updates from U.S. tech majors Microsoft Inc., and Meta Platforms, and uncertainty about the outlook for interest rate cuts, weighed on sentiment.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended down 350.92 points or 1.43% at 24,156.87. The index tumbled to a low of 24,098.49, a three-week low, in the session.

Technology, materials, consumer staples, real estate, financials and energy stocks closed sharply lower. Consumer discretionary and industrials stocks too ended with notable losses. Healthcare stocks found some support.

Open Text Corporation (OTEX.TO) tanked 11.1% after the company reported first-quarter net income of $84 million, compared with $81 million a year ago.

Badger Infrastructure Solutions (BDGI.TO) dropped 10.5%. The company posted adjusted net earnings of $25 million in the three months ended September 30, 2024, compared with $23.8 million in the year-ago quarter.

Morguard Corporation (MRC.TO) ended down 4.4%. West Fraser Timber (WFG.TO) lost 3.7%, while Constellation Software (CSU.TO), Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.A.TO), Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO) and Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO) lost 2.2 to 3.1%.

Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO), Loblaw Companies (L.TO), George Weston (WN.TO), Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO), Intact Financial Corporation (IFC.TO), FirstService Corporation (FSV.TO) and Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) ended down 1.2 to 2%.

Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) zoomed 12.7% after the company reported its sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in both Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA. Third quarter consolidated revenues of $2.51 billion, up 12% on a Reported basis and 9% on an Organic (non-GAAP) basis, with growth in all segments, the company said.

Capital Power Corporation (CPX.TO) gained about 4%. Gildan Activewear (GIL.TO) gained about 1.3%. The company announced that it posted net earnings of $131.5 million in the third-quarter, up from $127.4 million in the year-ago quarter. The stock is up with a modest gain.

Rogers Communications (RCI.A.TO), Dayforce (DAY.TO) and Emera Incorporated (EMA.TO) advanced 1 to 1.8%.

Canada's GDP likely grew by 0.3% in September, data from Statistics Canada showed. Economic growth in August, however, was stagnant, consistent with preliminary estimates and market expectations.

Wages in Canada increased 4.6% in August 2024 over the same month in the previous year, a separate data from Statistics Canada said.

A report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said the CFIB's Business Barometer, a long-term index reflecting 12-month forward expectations for business performance in the country, edged up to 55.8 in October 2024 from an upwardly revised 55.1 in September.