TSX Ends Lower For 4th Straight Day

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market plunged sharply in early trades on Friday, but despite staging a fairly good recovery stayed in the red right through the session, weighed down by rising fears of a recession.

Stocks tumbled at the start after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 5% tariff on all imports from Mexico and threatened that rates would go up if Mexico does not make efforts to stop flow of illegal immigrants across the country and into the U.S.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which declined to a low of 15,963.31, ended the day with a loss of 51.75 points, or 0.32%, at 16,037.49.

The index, which posted losses for a fourth successive session, shed 1.18% in the week.

With the ongoing trade spat between the U.S. and China already hurting growth, markets feared an escalation in trade tensions will result in a global recession.

The sharp fall in crude oil prices amid rising concerns about a likely fall in energy demand due to economic slowdown contributed as well to the weakness in the market.

Investors were also digesting Canadian GDP data that fell short of expectations.

Healthcare and energy stocks dragged the market down. The Capped Healthcare Index declined 3.62% and the Energy Index shed 1.14%.

Financial stocks too ended mostly lower, dragging the Capped Financial Index down by 1.05%.

Cronos Group (CRON.TO), Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO), Canopy Growth Corporation (WEED.TO), Aphria (APHA.TO), Hexo Corp. (HEXO.TO) and CannTrust Holdings (TRST.TO) lost 4 to 5%, while Baush Health Companies (BHC.TO) ended lower by 3.1%.

In the energy space, Encana Corp. (ECA.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), ARC Resources (ARX.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Enerplus Corp. (ERF.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) ended lower by 1.5 to 4.4%.

In the Financial index, Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) and Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO) lost 1 to 2%.

Mining stocks rallied after gold prices rose sharply on safe-haven appeal.

Yamana Gold (YRI.TO) soared 8%. Kirkland Lake Gold (KL.TO), Alamos Gold (AGI.TO), Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX.TO), B2Gold Corp. (BTO.TO), Iamgold Corp. (IMG.TO), Semafo (SMF.TO) and Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (WPM.TO) and Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO) rose 4 to 7%.

On the economic front, data showed Gross Domestic Product in Canada expanded 0.1% in the first quarter of 2019 over the previous quarter. GDP Growth increased to 0.4% annually in the first quarter of 2019 from 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The Canadian economy advanced 0.5% month-over-month in March of 2019, rebounding from a upwardly revised 0.2% drop in February.

According to another report from Statistics Canada, producer prices in Canada increased to 118.60 Index Points in March from 117.10 Index Points in February of 2019.

U.S. stocks plunged sharply as investors reacted negatively to Trump's decision to impose tariffs on Mexican imports.

The Dow ended 1.4% down, the Nasdaq declined 1.5% and the S&P 500 closed lower by 1.3%.

European markets ended notably lower and markets across the Asia-Pacific region too moved mostly lower on Friday.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down $3.09, or 5.5%, at $53.50 a barrel, the lowest settlement since the second week of February.

Gold futures for August ended up $18.70, or 1.5%, at $1,311.10 an ounce, the highest settlement since April 10.