By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com -- At 1:00 p.m in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite Index was at 19,042.54, down 0.94% at midday.
The Canadian benchmark tracked U.S. equities lower on renewed worries of aggressive policy tightening and recession risks, following comments by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. Powell re-iterated the risk that interest rate increases could trigger a slowdown, but that persistent inflation remained a greater worry.
Yesterday, Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney also warned of an "uncomfortably high" recession risks globally, but noted that Canada was in a "better position" than most countries to weather the storm.
Economic Data from the U.S., including a contraction in first-quarter GDP and a record trade deficit, also weighed on investor sentiment today. Canadian investors will be awaiting Canadian GDP data for April, due to be released tomorrow, for further clues on moves from the Bank of Canada in July.
All TSX sectors barring consumer staples and industrials were in the red at midday.
The commodity heavy index was most pressured by losses in materials (2.14%) and energy (2.13%). Crude reversed gains from earlier today to dip into the red at midday, as worries of an economic slowdown weigh against market tightness driven by low OPEC+ supply and various embargoes (on Russia, Venezuela, and Iran). Materials meanwhile remained pressured by weakness in gold.
Rate-sensitive tech (-2.77%) and healthcare (-3.40%) meanwhile, were the worst-performing sectors on the TSX today.
The biggest gainers on the TSX so far today included Alamos Gold (TSX:AGI) (+3.01%), George Weston Limited (TSX:WN) (+2.24%), Waste Connections (TSX:WCN) (+1.72%), Loblaw Companies Limited (TSX:L)(+1.44%), Choice Properties REIT (TSX:CHP_u) (+1.41%).
Today’s biggest losers so far included Aurora Cannabis (TSX:ACB) (-8.81%), Capstone Mining Corp (TSX:CS) (-8.31%), Denison Mines (TSX:DML) (-7.30%), Filo Mining Corp (TSX:FIL) (-7.25%), and Corus Entertainment (TSX:CJRb) (-7.04%).