By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com -- At 1:00 p.m in Toronto. The S&P/TSX Composite was at 20,869.62 points, down 0.24% in the day’s trading following hawkish commentary from a Fed Governor, less than stellar Canadian GDP data, and ahead of a 50 basis point hike largely expected by the Bank of Canada tomorrow.
Losses on the TSX today were broad-based, with all major sectors, including energy and materials in the red as markets reacted today to comments from Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who noted that the U.S. central bank should be prepared to raise rates by a half percentage point at every meeting from now on and until inflation is well under control.
An interest rate hike is also expected from the Bank of Canada tomorrow, with a 50 basis point move widely expected, raising its policy rate to 1.5%. The BoC will need to move aggressively to tackle soaring inflation (6.8%) without curbing the Canadian economy, still recovering from Covid-19 lockdowns.
Today’s GDP data showed that the Canadian economy grew 3.1% in the first quarter. The growth was at a slower pace than expected by analysts (5.4%) but in line with central bank expectations (+3.0%).
Rate-sensitive growth sectors including health care with its weighting of cannabis stocks (-0.93%), Info Tech (-0.72%) and Clean Tech (-1.27%) were amongst the worst-performing sectors on the TSX so far today. The commodity heavy index was also weighed down by materials (-0.36%), which tracked the price of gold, and energy (-0.60%), trading lower despite an increasingly bullish market for crude.
Canopy Growth (TSX:WEED) (+3.97%), Nutrien (TSX:NTR) (+4.31%), and Linamar (TSX:LNR) (+3.38%) were amongst the biggest gainers on the TSX so far today, while Lithium Americas (TSX:LAC) (-11.23%), Converge Tech (TSX:CTS) (-6.09%), and Denison Mines (TSX:DML) (-5.92%) were amongst the biggest losers.