Canadian Market Ends Notably Lower On Inflation Worries

(RTTNews) - Save for a few minutes at the start when it touched a new high, the Canadian stock market exhibited weakness on Wednesday after data showed a sharp acceleration in U.S. consumer price inflation in the month of October.

The report showing the U.S. consumer price index jumped by 0.9% in October after a 0.4% increase in September raised concerns about the outlook for interest rates even though the Federal Reserve said recently that it will not be in a hurry to begin raising rates.

A sharp fall in crude oil prices triggered a sell-off in energy stocks. Healthcare and information technology stocks were the other major losers. Materials shares moved higher.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which edged up to 21,597.80 in opening trades, dropped to a low of 21,415.34 later on in the session before finally settling at 21,461.93 with a loss of 132.59 points or 0.61%.

Among the major losers, Shawcor (SCL.TO), AutoCanada Inc (ACQ.TO), Viq Solutions (VQS.TO) and Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO) shed 14.5% - 16%.

Sunopta Inc (SOY.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Boyd Group Services (BYD.TO), Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO), Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO) and Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO) lost 5 to 12%.

Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Finning International (FTT.TO), Absolute Software Corp (ABST.TO), Canada Goose Holdings (GOOS.TO), CGI Group (GIB.TO), Cameco Corp (CCO.TO) and Transalta Corp (TA.TO) ended lower by 4 to 5%.

Sierra Wireless (SW.TO) soared more than 16%. Linamar Corp (LNR.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO), Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX.TO), Sleep Country Canada Holdings (ZZZ.TO), Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO), WSP Global (WSP.TO), Alamos Gold (AGI.TO), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO) and Kirkland Lake Gold (KL.TO) gained 3 to 6%.