Stubbornly high inflation had dragged equities in recent weeks as investors adapt to the end of the era of cheap money and instead worry about price pressures taking a toll on corporate profits and economic growth.

Following its worst day in more than two years, Canada’s main stock index saw its biggest weekly drop since the pandemic-driven market rout in March 2020. Gains among healthcare, telecom, and technology firms couldn’t help the market overcome energy and mining losses on Friday.

Also trying to recoup some of the losses suffered in recent days, Wall Street shares were split after a brutal selloff triggered by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks raising interest rates heightened recession fears. Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated the central bank’s focus on bringing back inflation to its 2 per cent target.

So far this week, the benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ have tumbled 6 per cent with the former also dropping nearly $2 trillion in that time.

Today in the Markets

 
TSX 18,930.48 -73.58 TSX
 
TSXV 640.38 +0.83 TSXV
 
CSE 284.26 -0.44 TSXV
 
DJIA 29,886.80 -40.27 DJIA
 
NASDAQ 10,798.35 +152.25 NASDAQ
 
S&P 500 3,674.63 +7.86 S&P 500
 

The Canadian dollar traded for 76.77 cents US compared to 77.38 cents US on Thursday.

US crude futures traded 6.25 per cent lower at $110.20 a barrel, while the Brent contract lost 5.26 per cent to $113.50 a barrel.

The price of gold was down US$13.76 US to $1,837.42.

In world markets, the Nikkei was down 468.20 points to 25,963.00 the Hang Seng was up 229.57 points to 21,075.00 the FTSE was down 17.29 points to 7,027.69, and the DAX was up 76.12 points to 13,114.61.


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