Canadian Stocks Tumble As Investors Opt For Profit Taking

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks slumped on Thursday, reversing the gains made earlier in the session, triggered by yesterday's Nvidia's stellar earnings, as investors chose to book profits.

After opening above yesterday's close, the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index quickly gave back and traded lower for the rest of the session before settling at 29,906.55, down by 371.86 points (or 1.23%).

Consumer Staples was the only one of the 11 sectors that posted gains.

Concerns of overvaluation in technology majors due to their enormous investments in artificial intelligence led to a decline in technology sector stocks in recent days.

Yesterday, AI-giant and the world's number one chipmaker Nvidia announced third quarter 2025 earnings result that exceeded market expectations, thereby calming investor apprehensions about AI-induced tech rally.

Tech stocks gained ground due to this optimism earlier today, but traders soon preferred booking profits.

In the U.S. today, the non-farm payrolls data was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The report showed employment rose by 119,000 jobs in September (against expected 50,000) rebounding from a revised 4,000 decline in August; the biggest increase in five months.

This report was scheduled to be released on October 3 but got delayed due to the recent government shutdown.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4% in September from 4.3% in August.

Despite a rise in unemployment, as the decent NFP numbers went against rate cut expectations, investors' attention turned away from the Fed.

Currently, the CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating a 39.8% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut in the December 9-10 meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney is on an official visit to the United Arab Emirates in an endeavor to stabilize the economy squeezed by the U.S. tariffs and to explore marketplaces outside the U.S.

Carney intends to strengthen diplomatic, economic, and technological cooperation between the two nations.

The premiers of two countries are set up for a meeting with an intent to expand collaboration in energy, agriculture, infrastructure, and artificial intelligence. With more than 150 Canadian companies operating in the U.A.E., the country remains Canada's largest trading partner in the Middle East.

In late October, the Bank of Canada cut its benchmark interest rate to 2.25%.

During the rate cut announcement, BoC Governor Tiff Macklem emphasized that the bank's ability to boost the economy by adjusting borrowing rates has essentially reached its limit.

Talking in a similar vein, yesterday, the central bank's external deputy governor Nicolas Vincent stated that the key to making life more affordable for the long-term is by increasing the economy's overall productivity and thereby the income level.

Economists feel that further rate cuts by Bank of Canada in the short-term may be unlikely.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business today revealed that its Business Barometer long-term index rose to 55.5 in November from an upwardly revised 46.7 in October.

Data released by Statistics Canada today revealed that Canadian industrial producer prices rose 1.5% month-over-month in October and increased 6.0% year-on-year.

Major sectors that lost in today's trading were Communication Services (0.66%), Industrials (0.82%), Healthcare (0.98%), IT (2.55%), and Materials (4.48%).

Utilities, Energy, Real Estate, Financials, and Consumer Discretionary sectors lost anywhere from 0.59% to 0.17%.

Among the individual stocks, Lundin Gold Inc (8.42%), Discovery Silver Corp (7.99%), Ngex Minerals Ltd (7.66%), Celestica Inc (9.50%), Dye & Durham Ltd (4.91%), and Lightspeed Commerce (4.22%) were the notable losers.

The only major sector that gained in today's trading was Consumer Staples (0.87%).

Among the individual stocks, Metro Inc (1.55%), Loblaw CO (1.37%), Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc (1.19%), and Canada Packers Inc (1.17%) were the prominent gainers.

Altus Group Ltd (5.42%), Curaleaf Holdings Inc (1.86%), and Dollarama Inc (1.68%) were among the prime market-moving stocks today.