TSX Retreats After Posting New High, Settles Marginally Up

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market hit a new high, but failed to hold early gains and settled just marginally up on Wednesday as losses in energy and consumer discretionary stocks outweighed gains in technology and industrials sectors.

The mood remained cautious with investors digesting earnings updates from major banks and economic data, and looking ahead to U.S. non-farm payroll data due this week.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which posted a new intraday high at 25,743.53 in early trades, dropped to a low of 25,573.61 and finally ended the session at 25,641.18, up 5.45 points or 0.02%.

Hut 8 Corp (HUT.TO) climbed nearly 8%. Spin Master Corp (TOY.TO), MDA Space (MDA.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), Winpak (WPK.TO) and Guardian Capital Group (GCG.TO) gained 3 to 5%.

Capital Power Corporation (CPX.TO), TerraVest Industries (TVK.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO), Atkins Realis (ATRL.TO), Stella-Jones (SJ.TO), Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (PBH.T), WSP Global (WSP.TO) and Stantec (STN.TO) closed up 2 to 3%.

Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) reported net income of $16.2 billion for the year ended October 31, 2024, up $1.6 billion or 11% from the prior year. The stock closed modestly higher.

National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) closed nearly 4% down. The bank reported adjusted profit of C$928 million ($659.93 million), or C$2.58 per share, for the three months ended Oct. 31, from C$850 million, or C$2.39 per share, a year earlier.

Dollarama Inc (DOL.TO) settled more than 5% down. The company announced that its net earnings increased by 5.6% to $275.8 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to $261.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2024, reflecting an increase in diluted net earnings per common share of 6.5% to $0.98 per diluted common share, in the third quarter of fiscal 2025.

Coveo Solutions (CVO.TO) tanked more than 11%. Quebecor Inc (QBR.TO) closed down 9.4%. Tenaz Energy (TNZ.TO), Canadian Western Bank (CWB.TO), Precision Drilling Corporation (PD.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Ero Copper (ERO.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO) and MEG Energy Corp (MEG.TO) lost 2 to 4.3%.

Data from S&P Global showed that the S&P Global Canada Composite PMI rose to 51.5 in November 2024, up from 50.7 in October, marking the fastest private sector growth since May 2022 and a second consecutive month of expansion.

The S&P Global Canada Services PMI rose to 51.2 in November 2024, the highest since April 2023, up from 50.4 in the prior month. Although the services sector posted a second month of growth, the expansion remained modest overall with new business largely unchanged since October.

A report from Statistics Canada said productivity in Canada decreased to 101.37 points in the third quarter of 2024 from 101.77 points in the second quarter of 2024.