Canadian Market Remains Weak, Looks Set To End Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is down firmly in negative territory Thursday afternoon, and looks headed for a weak close, as stocks from across several sectors continue to reel under sustained selling pressure.

The mood is bearish amid uncertainty about the outlook for Federal Reserve's interest rate moves, after data from the Labor Department showed a bigger than expected increase in U.S. producer price inflation in the month of February.

Communications, materials, consumer discretionary, healthcare, consumer staples, utilities and financials shares are weak. A few stocks from energy and technology sectors are up with notable gains.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 159.05 points or 0.72% at 21,811.06.

Data from the Labor Department showed the producer price index for final demand climbed by 0.6% in February after rising by 0.3% in January. Economists had expected producer prices to rise by another 0.3%.

The report also said the annual rate of producer price growth accelerated to 1.6% in February from a revised 1% in January. Economists had expected the year-over-year price growth to rise to 1.1% from the 0.9% originally reported for the previous month.

In Canadian economic news, data from Statistics Canada showed manufacturing sales in the country rose by 0.2% from a month earlier to C$ 71.1 billion in January.

A separate data from Statistics Canada showed car registrations in Canada decreased to 128,193 units in December 2023 from 143,723 units in November. 2023.

Jamieson Wellness (JWEL.TO) is down 14%. Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO) is down 5.5% and BCE Inc (BCE.TO) is lower by about 4.2%.

CCL Industries (CCL.B.TO), Magna International (MG.TO), West Fraser Timber (WFG.TO), Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO) and WSP Global (WSP.TO) are down 1 to 3%.