(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market is swinging between gains and losses Thursday morning as concerns over U.S.-China tensions appear to outweigh positive Canadian trade data and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's announcement that the central bank will change its approach to a "flexible form of average inflation targeting."
Energy and materials shares are down sharply. Healthcare stocks are also mostly weak, while real estate, telecom, financial and consumer staples shares are moving up. Information technology and industrials shares are turning in a mixed performance.
The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 13.50 points or 0.08% at 16,803.47. The index, which slipped to a low of 16,732.50, later rose to 16,835.09.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO) is rising more than 2%. The bank announced that it posted a net profit of $1.17 billion or $2.25 per diluted share in the third quarter of this year, down from $1.4 billion or $3.06 per diluted share a year earlier.
Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) shares are up nearly 1%. The group reported a net profit of $2.25 billion or $1.21 per diluted share for the third quarter ended July 31, 2020. That was down from a profit of $3.25 billion or $1.74 per diluted share a year ago. However, the numbers were better than what the market had expected.
BRP Inc. (DOO.TO) is climbing more than 5%. BRP Inc. reported its second-quarter revenue fell 15.5% compared with a year ago as it temporarily suspended production due to the pandemic, but said demand was high for its products.
BRP said it earned $126.1 million or $1.43 per share in net income for the quarter ended July 31, up from $93.3 million or 96 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The Fed chief stressed that the longer-run goal continues to be an inflation rate of 2% but noted inflation will average less than that if it runs below 2% following economic downturns and never moves above that level even when the economy is strong.
According to data released by Statistics Canada this morning, Canada's current account deficit narrowed to C$8.63 billion in the second quarter from a revised C$13.22 billion deficit in the first quarter. Economists expected trade deficit to come in at C$12.2 billion.
The goods and services gap decreased by C$5.3 billion to C$7.9 billion, as the goods deficit fell by C$1 billion to C$7.7 billion as exports fell by an unprecedented C$33.2 billion to C$106.9 billion and imports were down by a record C$34.2 billion to C$114.5 billion, the data showed.
Meanwhile, average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees in Canada grew 9.4% year-on-year to C$1,119 in June of 2020, following a revised record 10.3% jump in the previous month.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
