Canadian Market Down Sharply On Weak U.S. Economic Data, Earnings

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is down sharply on Friday with stocks across the board reeling under a severe bout of selling pressure amid rising fears the U.S. economy could fall into a recession.

After the weak manufacturing activity report on Thursday, the Labor Department's data today showing a much smaller than expected addition of jobs in U.S. non-farm payroll employment in the month of July and an increase in unemployment have raised concerns about growth in the world's largest economy.

Some highly disappointing earnings updates from big name U.S. companies, including Intel and Amazon, also weigh on sentiment.

Energy, technology, materials, healthcare, financials and industrials shares are mostly down with sharp losses. Consumer discretionary, real estate and consumer staples shares not faring any significantly better either. A few stocks from utilities and communications sectors are finding modest support.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which plunged to 22,020.18 earlier in the session, was down 571.84 points or 2.52% at 22,151.37 a little while ago.

Precision Drilling Corp (PD.TO), Celestica Inc (CLS.TO), Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) are down 7 to 8%.

Dayforce (DAY.TO), Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), Colliers International (CIGI.TO), Stantec (STN.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), TFI International (TFII.TO) and Constellation Software (CSU.TO) are lower by 3 to 6%.

Imperial Oil Limited (IMO.TO) reported a net income of $1,133 million for the second quarter of 2024, compared to $675 million a year ago. The stock is down 2%.

Telus Corp (T.TO) is gaining 1.5%. The company announced that it posted a net income of $221 million in the second quarter of the current financial year, up 12.8% compared to a net income of $196 million in the year-ago quarter.

Magna International Inc. (MG.TO) is down 5.2% after reporting net income of $313 million for the quarter ended June 2024, compared to $339 million in the year-ago quarter.

Canadian Utilities Limited (CU.TO) is up 0.5%. The company announced second quarter 2024 adjusted earnings of $117 million ($0.43 per share), compared to $100 million ($0.37 per share) in the second quarter of 2023.

ATCO Ltd. (ACO.X.TO) reported adjusted earnings of $96 million ($0.86 per share) for the second quarter this fiscal, compared to $87 million ($0.77 per share) in the second quarter of 2023. The stock is traded modestly higher.

Enbridge Inc. (ENB.TO) reported adjusted earnings of $1.2 billion or $0.58 per common share for the second-quarter, compared with $1.4 billion or $0.68 per common share in the year-ago quarter. The stock is up marginally.