Canadian Market Recovers After Early Setback

(RTTNews) - After a positive start and a subsequently fall into negative territory, the Canadian stock market regained lost ground in cautious trade Wednesday morning.

Investors are digesting the data on Canadian inflation. The mood is cautious amid expectations the Federal Reserve will hike interest rate by fifty basis points in March.

Healthcare, consumer discretionary, financials and consumer staples shares are weak, while materials shares are up sharply. Technology and industrials shares are turning in a mixed performance. Energy stocks are weak.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 3.50 points or 0.02% at 21,278.07. Earlier, after advancing to 21,344.51, the index had dropped to 21,155.91.

On the economic front, data released by Statistics Canada showed Canada's inflation rate accelerated to 4.8% in December 2021 from 4.7% a month earlier. That was the steepest inflation rate since September 1991. On a monthly basis, consumer prices edged down 0.1%.

Canada's annual core inflation rose 4% in December 2021, the most since September 1989. Core inflation had come in at 3.6% in November.

Another data from Statistics Canada showed wholesale sales in Canada rose by 3.5% month-over-month to C$ 75.6 billion in November 2021 as against preliminary estimates of 2.7%.

Linamar Corporation (LNR.TO) is plunging more than 7%. Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.TO), Magna International (MG.TO), Tecsys Inc (TCS.TO), MTY Food Group (MTY.TO), National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) and iA Financial Corporation (IAG.TO) are down 2 to 4%.

Tornoto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), Onex Corporation (ONEX.TO), Loblaw (L.TO), Boyd Group Services (BYD.TO), George Weston (WN.TO) and Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) are also notably lower.

Among the gainers, MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO) and Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO) both are up by about 8.5%. Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO), Kirkland Lake Gold (KL.TO), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO), Newmont Corporation (NGT.TO), Franco-Nevada Corp (FNV.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) are gaining 2 to 7%.