TSX Lower as Energy Stocks Weigh

Stocks in Canada’s largest centre opened lower on Thursday, extending the prior session's losses as weaker crude prices weighed on energy shares and investors worried about soaring domestic inflation.

The S&P/TSX lost another 95.17 points, to open Thursday at 20,006.21.

The Canadian dollar moved sharply forward, 0.51 cents at 78.11 cents U.S.

Brookfield Asset Management has agreed to
buy British home repair services firm HomeServe for 4.08 billion pounds ($5.04 billion U.S.), as it looks to broaden its exposure to U.K. residential infrastructure investments.

Brookfield shares dropped seven cents to $59.08.

Turquoise Hill Resources said on Wednesday Rio Tinto will provide it interim debt funding of up to $400 million while it evaluates the Anglo-Australian miner's $2.7-billion bid for the company.

Turquoise Hill shares soared 97 cents, or 3.8%, to $35.13.

CIBC cuts target price on Canopy Growth to $6.50 from $9.00. Canopy Growth shares picked up nine cents, or 1.3%, to $7.27.

National Bank of Canada cut the target price on Saputo to $31.00 from $33.00. Saputo shares dived 33 cents, or 1.3%, to $25.08.

On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reports its industrial product price index rose 0.8% month over month in April and was up 16.4% year over year.

Its raw materials price index decreased 2.0% on a monthly basis in April and rose 38.4% year over year.

Elsewhere, the agency reported new home prices in April rose 0.3% compared with March.

ON BAYSTREET

The TSX Venture Exchange edged forward 0.14 points to 691.31.

All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups down in the first hour, with industrials falling 1.6%, consumer staples down 1.2%, consumer discretionary stocks off 1.1%.

The three gainers proved to be gold, shining brighter 2.9%, materials, up 1.9% and information technology, squeezing up 0.02%.

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ON WALLSTREET

Stocks fell again on Thursday, putting the S&P 500 to the brink of a bear market, as investors continued to dump equities on fears Federal Reserve rate hikes to fight rapid inflation would tip the economy into a recession.

The Dow Jones Industrials lost 256.16 points, or 3.6%, to start Thursday at 31,233.91, a day after it experienced the biggest one-day drop since 2020.

The S&P 500 lost 13.22 points to 3,910.46. It also sits a little more than 19% below its record closing level. A close of 20% or more below its all-time high would mark a bear market, its first since the March 2020 pandemic selloff.

The NASDAQ Composite however, gained 39.39 points to 11,457.55.

Cisco was the latest major company to plunge on results with the tech bellwether down 10% Thursday. Cisco said after the bell Wednesday that quarterly revenue fell short of analysts expectations and it warned revenue would disappoint in the current quarter.

Shares of Kohl’s dropped 5% after the retailer posted a big earnings miss and cut its profit and sales outlook. Just like Walmart and Target, the retailer cited rising inflation pressures.

Stocks have been under pressure all year with investors first pivoting away from highly-valued tech stocks with little profits. But the selloff has since spread to more sectors of the economy, including banks and retail, as growing fears of a recession spooked investors.

Treasury prices gained ground, lowering yields to 2.82% from Wednesday’s 2.88%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices dropped $1.25 at $108.34 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices recovered $22.20 to $1,838.10 U.S. an ounce.