By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com – The TSX tracked the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq lower on Wednesday as a slew of weak US economic data including the ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) National Employment report, deepened worries of a recession.
Megacaps including Meta, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) most weighed on Wall Street, while short interest in TD saw the Canadian bank amongst the most traded (and by volume, most sold off) stocks on the TSX today.
The commodity heavy Canadian index was also pressured by a slide in crude prices as worries of an economic slowdown outweighed the OPEC+ production cut and greater than expected US crude inventory declines.
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Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSX:TD) is now the biggest bank short globally, with roughly US$3.7 billion on the line as per an analysis by S3 Partners. This puts the Canadian bank ahead of BNP Paribas (EPA:BNPP) SA and Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC). However, short interest as a percentage of TD’s shares available for trading, or float remains relatively low. That ratio currently stands at 3.3%, up from 2.8% a year ago.
Roots Corp (TSX:ROOT). reported a Q4 profit of $13.0 million or 31 cents per diluted share for the quarter, down from a profit of $18.1 million or 42 cents per diluted share a year earlier. Overall sales totalled $111.5 million in the quarter, down from $121.3 million. The drop came largely from Roots corporate retail store and e-commerce sales.
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In Canadian Economics
Statistics Canada says the country's merchandise trade surplus fell to $422 million in February as exports fell more than imports, compared to a revised surplus of $1.2 billion for January. In February, total exports fell 2.4% to $65.0 billion. n volume terms, total exports fell 0.9% while imports fell 0.8%.