TSX Ends Sharply Lower For 2nd Straight Day

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks tumbled on Friday as weak U.S. jobs data added to fears the world's largest economy could slip into a recession. Some disappointing earnings updates from top U.S. and Canadian companies weighed as well.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which plunged to a low of 22,020.18 around late morning, losing about 700 points in the process, ended down 495.58 points or 2.18% at 22,227.63. The index lost 2.6% in the week.

Technology, energy, materials, financials, industrials and healthcare stocks fell sharply.

The Information Technology Capped Index dropped 4.47%. Bitfarms Ltd. (BITF.TO) tanked nearly 12%. Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) plunged 9.4% and Celestica Inc (CLS.TO) plummeted 8%.

Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Computer Modelling Group (CMG.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO) and Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO) lost 3 to 7%.

The Energy Capped Index ended down 4.34% as stocks fell sharply on weak crude oil prices. Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Precision Drilling Corporation (PD.TO), Parex Resources (PXT.TO), Veren Inc (VRN.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Nuvista Energy (NU.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO) and Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) lost 5 to 8%.

The Materials Capped Index ended down 2.35%. Methanex Corp (MX.TO), Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO), Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO), Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO), Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO), Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO) and Nutrien (NTR.TO) closed lower by 4 to 6%.

In the financials sector, Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) ended down 5.1%. Power Corporation of Canada (POW.TO), Onex Corp (ONEX.TO), Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), goeasy (GSY.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), CDN Western Bank (CWB.TO) and National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) lost 2 to 4.1%.

Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO), Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO), Badger Infrastructure (BDGI.TO), Snc-Lavalin Group (ATRL.TO) and Cargojet (CJT.TO) were among the major losers in the industrials sector.

Healthcare stocks Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) and Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) ended down 8% and 6.8%, respectively.

Data from the Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment climbed by 114,000 jobs in July after jumping by a downwardly revised 179,000 jobs in June. Economists had expected employment to rise by 175,000 jobs compared to the surge of 206,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The Labor Department also said the unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in July from 4.1% in June. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.