Canadian Market Subdued In Cautious Trade Ahead Of Fed Policy

The Canadian market is down marginally in late morning trades on Wednesday with investors digesting the preliminary reading on Canadian GDP for the month of December, and looking ahead to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement due later in the day.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but the accompanying policy statement and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s post-meeting press conference may offer clues on how soon the Fed could begin easing rates.

Data from Statistics Canada said Canada’s economy likely grew 0.3% in December 2023, according to preliminary estimates. In November, GDP increased by 0.2%, higher than the preliminary estimate of 0.1% advance, and following three months of stagnation.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 21.21 points or 0.1% at 21,206.66.

Materials and industrials shares are finding support. Energy and technology stocks are mostly subdued.

New Gold Inc (NG.TO), up 5%, is the top gainer in the Materials Index, which is up nearly 1%. Wesdome Gold Mines (WDO.TO), Franco-Nevada Corp (FNV.TO), Equinox Gold Corp (EQX.TO), Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO), Ero Copper (ERO.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), Seabridge Gold (SEA.TO) and K92 Mining Inc (KNT.TO) are gaining 2 to 3.1%.

Industrials shares Ballard Power Systems (BP.TO) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP.TO) are up 2.75% and 2%, respectively.

In the technology sector, Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) and Constellation Software (CSU.TO) are down 1.4 to 2%.

CGI Inc (GIB.A.TO) is advancing 2.3% on fairly strong results. CGI reported first-quarter net earnings of $389.8 million, up 1.9% year-over-year.

Energy stocks Nuvista Energy (NV.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO) and Imperial Oil (IMO.TO) are down 2.1%, 1.4% and 1%, respectively.

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