From Suncor to Shopify, Canada Stocks Whipsaw on Recession Fears
- S&P/TSX is beating the S&P 500 by a wide margin this year
- Canadian stocks have slumped further with interest rate hikes
This article is for subscribers only.
This was supposed to be a blowout year for Canadian equities, benefiting from soaring commodity prices and a forceful post-pandemic rebound in consumer spending. Instead, the country’s benchmark index is slumping amid the global stock selloff, though not as badly as its US counterpart.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index declined 11% in the first half of 2022 as recession fears weighed on the value-heavy market, outperforming the S&P 500 Index, which fell 21%. Underscoring the market effects of inflation, Suncor Energy, one of Canada’s largest energy companies, soared 43%, while Shopify Inc. plunged, losing more than C$170 billion in market capitalization.