Canadian Market Remains Deep Down In Negative Territory After Another Bloodbath

(RTTNews) - It's a bloodbath on Bay Street again with the stocks seeing a free fall amid rising fears of a global recession following U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" moves and the retaliatory move by China raising concerns about economic growth.

Criticizing Trump's decision to impose 34% of additional reciprocal levies on China, which raises total U.S. tariffs against the country to 54%, as "inconsistent with international trade rules," the China's finance ministry said today that it will impose a 34% tariff on all goods imported from the U.S. starting on April 10.

With more countries, including Canada and the European Union, likely to announce countermeasures in the foreseeable future, the mood on Bay Street is extremely bearish today.

Disappointing Canadian jobs data, and sharply lower crude oil prices are adding to the woes.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 921.57 points or 3.79% at 23,414.20 a little while ago. The index had tanked to 22,988.29 earlier in the session, losing nearly 1,350 points.

Except the Communications Services Capped Index, which is up marginally, all the other indexes are down in the red. The Energy Capped Index, down nearly 9%, is the biggest loser. The Materials Capped Index is down 7.2%.

Financials, technology, healthcare, real estate, consumer discretionary, utilities and industrials stocks are also mostly down with sharp losses.

Data from Statistics Canada said Canada's employment fell by 33,000 in March, marking the first decline since January 2022. The unemployment rate in Canada rose to 6.7% in March from a three-month low of 6.6% registered in the previous month.

Average weekly earnings in Canada increased by 3.6% year-on-year to C$ 36.8 in March.