NEW YORK — Most of Wall Street wilted Thursday on worries that the economy’s recent improvements may be set to fade as coronavirus cases keep climbing.
The S&P 500 lost 0.6%, with three in four stocks within the index falling. The sharpest drops hit oil companies, airlines and other stocks whose fortunes are most closely tied to a reopening and strengthening economy. Treasury yields also sank in another sign of increased caution.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 361.19 points, or 1.4%, to 25,706.09, while the 17.89 point fall for the S&P 500 to 3,152.05 was just its second loss in the last eight days.
Smaller stocks sank more than the rest of the market, which often happens when investors are downgrading their expectations for the economy. The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks lost 28.48, or 2%, to 1,398.92.
The Nasdaq composite was an outlier as investors continue to bet big tech-oriented stocks can keep growing almost regardless of the economy’s strength. It added 55.25, or 0.5%, to 10,547.75 and hit another record.
“The broad equity market is navigating through a zone of uncertainty,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
“There are ample reasons for caution,” he said. “Clearly there’s uncertainty surrounding the impact and duration of this virus.”
Thursday’s headline economic report showed that a little more than 1.3 million workers filed for unemployment claims last week. It’s an astoundingly high number, but it’s also down from 1.4 million the prior week and from a peak of nearly 6.9 million in late March.
The improvements help validate investors’ earlier optimism that the economy can recover as states and other governments relax restrictions put in place earlier this year to slow the coronavirus pandemic. Such optimism helped the S&P 500 rally back to within 7% of its record, after earlier being down nearly 34%.
But economists point to a troubling slowdown in the pace of improvements, including moderating declines in the four-week average of jobless claims. Further gains for the job market are going to be more difficult, said Patrick Schaffer, global investment specialist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. The U.S. unemployment rate is currently 11.1%.
“The initial jump was the easy part,” he said. “The reality is the labour market continues to face enormous headwinds.”
Investors are worried that worsening infection levels across swaths of the U.S. South and West and in other global hotspots could derail the budding recovery. Some states are rolling back their reopenings, while others are ordering people arriving from hotspots to quarantine.
“When the restrictions were relaxed in the beginning part of June, you saw parts of the tangible economy do really well,” Schaffer said. “A lot of that has been unwound as we’ve seen a resurgence in case count and some restrictions being put in place.”
Markets have been quick to react to infection and hospitalization rates in Florida and other big Sun Belt states in particular. Thursday’s losses for stocks accelerated after Florida reported the largest daily increase in deaths yet from the pandemic, with its cumulative death toll topping 4,000.
Such concerns helped push Treasury yields lower. The yield on the 10-year note, which tends to move with investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation, sank to 0.60% from 0.65% late Wednesday.
The price of gold also held above $1,800 per ounce. Gold tends to rise when investors are worried about the economy, and on Wednesday it touched its highest price since September 2011. After flipping between small gains and losses, gold for delivery in August dipped $16.80 to settle at $1,803.80.
In the stock market, the sharpest losses hit companies whose profits tend to rise and fall most closely with the strength of the economy. Energy stocks dropped 4.9% for the biggest loss among the 11 sectors that make up the index. Exxon Mobil sank 4.1%, and ConocoPhillips fell 6.6%. Benchmark U.S. crude dropped $1.28 to settle at $39.62 per barrel.
Financial stocks were also particularly weak, with JPMorgan Chase down 2.2% and Citigroup down 2.8%, as a struggling economy raises the threat of borrowers failing to repay their loans.
Airlines and other companies that desperately need the pandemic to ease so customers can return also slumped. United Airlines lost 7.3%, retailer Kohl’s sank 7.2% and mall-owner Simon Property Group fell 5.3%.
Walgreens Boots Alliance dropped 7.8% for one of the biggest losses in the S&P 500 after it said it lost $1.7 billion in the latest quarter as the pandemic kept many of its customers around the world at home.
Companies across the country are preparing to report their second-quarter results in upcoming weeks, and forecasts are uniformly dismal.
Stocks in overseas markets were mixed, though China continued its huge run. Stocks in Shanghai added another 1.4%, bringing its gain for July to 15.6% and further stoking worries that speculators are in charge of the market.
Stan Choe, Damian J. Troise And Alex Veiga, The Associated Press
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the country’s merchandise trade deficit narrowed to $1.3 billion in September as imports fell more than exports.
The result compared with a revised deficit of $1.5 billion for August. The initial estimate for August released last month had shown a deficit of $1.1 billion.
Statistics Canada says the results for September came as total exports edged down 0.1 per cent to $63.9 billion.
Exports of metal and non-metallic mineral products fell 5.4 per cent as exports of unwrought gold, silver, and platinum group metals, and their alloys, decreased 15.4 per cent. Exports of energy products dropped 2.6 per cent as lower prices weighed on crude oil exports.
Meanwhile, imports for September fell 0.4 per cent to $65.1 billion as imports of metal and non-metallic mineral products dropped 12.7 per cent.
In volume terms, total exports rose 1.4 per cent in September while total imports were essentially unchanged in September.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
