TSX Ends Lower On Virus Fears, Weak Global Economic Data

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended in negative territory on Friday, as rising worries about an imminent deep recession due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic that has infected over a million people across the globe.

Data showing a sharp surge in U.S. unemployment in the month of March, and weak business activity data from the euro area raised concerns that the impending recession will be deep and a prolonged one.

Save for a few minutes at the start, the market remained in negative territory today.

Healthcare, consumer discretionary, financial and energy shares were among the major losers. Industrial stocks declined as well. Consumer staples, information technology and materials stocks turned in a mixed performance.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended down 159.54 points, or 1.22%, at 12,938.30, after scaling a high of 13,171.19 and a low of 12,829.38 intraday.

The index gained 1.72% on Thursday, after seeing a 3.75% drop a session earlier.

Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) lost 5.3%, 4% and 2.1%, respectively on strong volumes. Air Canada (AC.TO) and Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) ended lower by 1.1% and 1%, respectively.

Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) lost 6.6%. Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO), Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), Laurentian Bank (LB.TO), Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) and National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) also ended sharply lower.

MEG Energy (MEG.TO), Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO) and Husky Energy (HSE.TO) moved higher on fairly huge volumes.

On Wall Street, stocks drifted lower on Labor Department's report that showed employment in the U.S. fell much more than expected in the month of March.

The report said employment plunged by 701,000 jobs in March after jumping by an upwardly revised 275,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to slump by 100,000 jobs compared to the addition of 273,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

With the much bigger than expected drop in employment, the unemployment rate surged up to 4.4% in March from 3.5% in February. The unemployment rate had been expected to climb to 3.8%.

The major European markets ended weak, while Asian markets ended mixed after a lackluster session.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended up $3.02, or almost 12%, at $28.34 a barrel.

Gold futures for June ended up $8.00, or about 0.5%, at $1,645.70 an ounce.

Silver futures for May declined $0.16, or 1.1%, to $14.494 an ounce, while Copper futures for May eased by 1.2% to $2.1925 per pound.