(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is down firmly in negative territory Wednesday afternoon, hurt by losses in technology, consumer discretionary and industrials sectors.
The mood in the market is quite cautious amid concerns about inflation and economic slowdown due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Investors are also looking ahead to the summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday. Discussions on trade, technology, rare earth export controls, Taiwan, the Iran war, and artificial intelligence form part of the agenda.
The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 276 points or 0.8% at 34,014.74 a little while ago.
The Information Technology Capped Index is down nearly 2%. Open Text Corporation is down nearly 6%, while Kinaxis, Shopify and CGI Inc. are down 4.6%, 4.4% ad 3.5%, respectively. Docebo, Lightspeed Commerce and Descartes Systems Group are also down sharply.
Consumer discretionary stocks Dollarama and Aritzia are down 2.6% and 2.3%, respectively. Brp Inc is down 1.9% and Restaurant Brands International is declining by 1.6%.
Boyd Group Services, down 12.4%, is the biggest loser in the Industrials index. WSP Global, Stantec and Thomson Reuters are down 6%-7%. Atkins Realis is declining by 4.2%.
Financials shares Goeasy, Onex Corporation, Power Corporation of Canada, EQB, Brookfield Asset Management and TMX Group are down sharply.
Healthcare stocks Curaleaf Holdings and Chartwell Retirement Residences are up 5.5% and 2%, respectively. Sienna Senior Living is up 0.8%, while Bausch Health Companies is down 1.7%.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
