Canadian Market Extends Losses

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is down in negative territory around noon on Thursday with stocks drifting lower for a sixth straight session, weighed down by lingering concerns about the outlook for growth, fears of tariff hikes, and hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which dropped to a low of 24,422.23, is down 98.35 points or 0.4% at 24,458.65 a little past noon.

CargoJet (CJT.TO), Telesat Corporation (TSAT.TO), Softchoice Corporation (SFTC.TO), Hut 8 Corp (HUT.TO), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) and ATS Corporation (ATS.TO) are down 2 to 4%.

TFI International (TFII.TO), Magna International (MG.TO), Teck Resources (TECK.A.TO), Newmont Corporation (NGT.TO), MTY Food Group (MTY.TO), AtkinsRealis (ATRL.TO), GFL Environmental (GFL.TO) and Dayforce (DAY.TO) are lower by 1 to 1.7%.

Vermilion Energy (VET.TO) is up nearly 3%. The company said it is boosting its dividend by 8% to $0.13 per share, effective in the first quarter of 2025, and released 2025 guidance.

The hike comes as Vermilion outlined a 2025 capital-spending budget of $600 million to $625 million and production guidance of 84,000 to 88,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Vermilion estimated its 2025 fund flows from operations and free cash flow at $1.0 billion and $400 million, respectively, based on forward commodity prices.

BRP Inc (DOO.TO) is climbing more than 4%. Goeasy (GSY.TO), Propel Holdings (PRL.TO), TerraVest Industries (TVK.TO) and Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) are up 2 to 3.1%. CGI Inc (GIB.A.TO), Sprott Inc (SII.TO), Boyd Group Services (BYD.TO) and Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO) are up 1 to 1.5%.

Franco-Nevada (FNV.TO) is up more than 1%. The company announced today that its subsidiary Franco-Nevada (Barbados) signed a precious metals streaming agreement for specific production from Sibanye-Stillwater's Marikana, Rustenburg and Kroondal mining operations in South Africa.

Data from Statistics Canada said average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees in Canada rose by 5.3% year-on-year to $1,284.43 in October 2024, the fastest pace since March 2021, following a downwardly revised 4.9% increase in September.