Canadian Stocks Exhibiting Weakness, Set To Snap Winning Streak

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market, which slipped into the red a little before noon on Friday, continues to exhibit weakness due to sustained selling at several counters, and looks set to end lower after five successive days of gains.

Healthcare, technology, energy and materials shares are down sharply. A few stocks from real estate, consumer staples and utilities sections are notably higher.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 114.42 points or 0.6% at 18,948.43.

The Healthcare Capped Index is down more than 4%. Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) is down 8.6%, Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) is losing about 7.6%, Cronos Group (CRON.TO) is declining nearly 7% and Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) is down 6.25%. Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) is lower by aboout 3.7%.

Technology stocks are down sharply, tracking the fall of Nasdaq after Snap Inc shares plunged 37% on disappointing second quarter results. The company declined to provide guidance due to "incredibly challenging" conditions and also announced plans to "substantially slow" its rate of hiring.

Hut 8 Mining (HUT.TO) is down nearly 10%. Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) and Dye & Durham (DND.TO) are down 7.7% and 7.1%, respectively. Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), Sierra Wireless (SW.TO), Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO) and BlackBerry (BB.TO) are also down with sharp losses.

Energy stocks Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) and Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) are down 2 to 3%.

Materials shares Stelco Holdings (STLC.TO), Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.TO), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO), Interfor Corp (IFP.TO) and Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO) are down sharply.

In economic news, data from Statistics Canada showed retails sales in Canada increased 2.2% in May of 2022 over the previous month. Retail Sales increased 14.1% year-on-year in May.