On Friday, the Canadian stock market faced significant declines, primarily impacted by setbacks in the energy, industrial, and materials sectors, amidst prevailing uncertainties regarding the Federal Reserve's interest rate direction.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index, beginning the session at 25,004.49, dipped to 24,814.91 by the afternoon, ultimately closing at 24,890.68. This marked a reduction of 158.99 points, or 0.63%, although the index still registered a slight weekly gain.
Notable declines were observed in shares of Capital Power Corporation, Dayforce, Canadian Natural Resources, Alimentation Couche-Tard, Tourmaline Oil Corp, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, and CCL Industries, which dropped between 2% and 3%.
Conversely, Hut 8 Corp saw an impressive surge, rising over 9%, while Aya Gold & Silver increased by 7.8%. Other companies, such as Celestica Inc, Russel Metals, GFL Environmental, Keyera Corp, Cameco Corporation, BRP Inc, and Boyd Group Services also achieved notable gains.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported a 0.5% decrease in manufacturing sales for September, outperforming earlier forecasts of a 0.8% decline, following a 1.3% reduction in August.
Wholesale sales experienced a 0.8% decrease month-over-month in September, contrary to initial predictions of a 0.9% rise, after witnessing a 0.6% decrease in August.
Additionally, another Statistics Canada report highlighted a fall in car registrations, with figures dropping to 168,620 units in August from 169,327 units in July.