Canadian Stocks Tumble After U.S. Inflation Data

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks are down sharply in negative territory on Tuesday after hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data raised speculation that the Fed will be aggressive with interest rate hike at the upcoming meeting.

Technology, healthcare, consumer and financials shares are among the major losers. Energy and materials shares are also mostly down in negative territory.

The benchmark S&P/TSX is down 237.71 points or 1.17% at 19,749.52 a few minutes past noon.

Data from the U.S. Labor Department showed the consumer price index inched up by 0.1% in August after coming in unchanged in July. Economists had expected consumer prices to edge down by 0.1%.

Compared to the same month a year ago, consumer prices were up by 8.3% in August, reflecting a slowdown from the 8.5% spike in July. However, economists had expected the annual rate of growth to slow to 8.1%.

Meanwhile, the annual rate of growth by core consumer prices accelerated to 6.3% in August from 5.9% in July. The annual rate of growth was expected to rise to 6.1%.

Tecsys Inc (TCS.TO) is down more than 8%. Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), BRP Inc (DOO.TO), Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.A.TO), Colliers International (CIGI.TO), Goeasy (GSY.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO), FirstService (FSV.TO) and Franco-Nevada Corp (FNV.TO) are down 1.6 to 4%.

Restaurant Brands International (QSP.UN.TO), Badger Infrastructure (BDGI.TO) and Nutrien (NTR.TO) are notably higher.

Roots Corporation Ltd. (ROOT.TO) reported second-quarter net loss of $3.2 million compared to net loss $1.2 million in the second quarter of the previous year. Sales increased 22.9% year-over-year to $47.8 million in the second quarter, the company said. The stock is down 1.7%.