Canada’s main stock index dropped to a more-than-two-week low on Thursday, dragged by commodity stocks, as investors grew nervous about the domestic economic growth amid looming tariff threats by Donald Trump.
The TSX dumped 203.16 points noon Thursday at 25,454.54.
The Canadian dollar erased 0.14 cents to 70.53 cents U.S.
The central bank slashed its policy rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday to help boost the country’s slower economic growth.
However, Governor Tiff Macklem emphasized further reductions would be more gradual and warned that potential new tariffs under U.S. President-elect Donald Trump represented “a major new uncertainty.”
In corporate news, non-paper containers & packaging firm Transcontinental missed fourth-quarter revenue estimates on Wednesday. Transcontinental shares gained 54 cents, or 3.1%, to $18.07.
Among individual stocks, Empire Company jumped $3.17, or 7.4% to scale to an all-time high of $46.20 after the food and retail distribution company surpassed estimates for second-quarter profit.
Imperial Oil fell $5.53, or 5.5%, to $98.29 following its forecast of higher crude production in 2025, as the Canadian energy major expects to ramp up output from existing oil sands assets.
In economic news, building permits decreased by $399.1 million (-3.1%) to $12.6 billion in October.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 5.48 points to 611.12.
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups lost ground Thursday morning, weighed most by gold, down 2.3%, materials, skidding 2.2%, and energy, off 1.7%
Only consumer staples survived on an up note, increasing 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks wavered Thursday as investors digested a hotter-than-expected producer price index reading for November.
The Dow Jones Industrial index gave back 42.62 points Thursday to 44,105.94.
The S&P 500 index dipped 7.78 points to 6,076.41
The tech-heavy NASDAQ let go of 38.89 points to 19,996.
Tech shares led the decline, with Nvidia losing more than 1%. Alphabet was also slightly lower.
Software giant Adobe declined more than 12% following the company’s weaker-than-expected 2025 outlook.
The producer price index, which tracks wholesale prices, increased 0.4% last month. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a 0.2% increase on a monthly basis.
This follows November’s consumer price index report, which came in line with economists’ estimates and has prompted investors to anticipate another rate cut from the Federal Reserve at its policy meeting next week.
Fed funds futures trading data reflects a 98% likelihood that central bank policymakers will lower rates next week.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury sagged, raising yields to 4.30% from Wednesday’s 4.27%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices descended 17 cents to $70.12 U.S. a barrel.
Prices for gold settled $49.80 an ounce to $2,706.90 U.S.
