Stocks in Canada’s largest market flirted with the flat line Wednesday, as losses in tech issues fought with gains in gold concerns.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index lumbered into the red 4.24 points to close Wednesday at 15,257.90
The Canadian dollar regained 0.16 cents at 79.53 cents U.S.
Shares of Barrick Gold climbed 38 cents, or 2.4%, to $16.47, and Goldcorp picked up 37 cents, or 2.1%, to $18.00.
Suncor Energy grew 96 cents, or 2.1%, to $47.29, while Canadian Natural Resources picked up 83 cents, or 2%, to $43.21.
One of the largest percentage gainers on the TSX was Pretium Resources, which rose $1.64, or 18.8%, to $10.37, while Agnico Eagle Mines climbed 61 cents, or 1.1%, to $55.25.
Tech stocks felt a letdown, with Titan Logix down 2.5 cents, or 5.5%, to 43 cents, and BlackBerry off 45 cents, or 3.3%, to $12.99.
Among financials, Royal Bank descended $1.05, or 1.1%, to $97.00, while Bank of Nova Scotia dipped 46 cents to $77.14.
Among consumer staples, Restaurant Brands International gave back 52 cents to $70.29.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 1.57 points Wednesday to 777.71
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly split Wednesday, with gold soaring 2.4%, energy up 2.1%, and materials up 1%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by information technology, down 1.2%, financials fading 0.8%, and consumer staples the worse by 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell hard on Wednesday after President Donald Trump taunted Russia on Twitter to "get ready" for a possible missile strike on Syria.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average went south 218.55 to 24,189.45, as Boeing fell 2.2%.
The S&P 500 fell 14.68 points to 2,642.19, with telecommunications and financials dropping more than 1% each
The NASDAQ Composite index settled 25.27 points to 7,069.03
Banks helped lead the decline. Shares of Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs all closed lower.
Trump said in a tweet: "Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!' You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!"
Talk of a potential trade war continues to rattle sentiment, while Facebook kept Wall Street preoccupied Tuesday as the tech giant's CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees.
He said that Facebook didn't notify the Federal Trade Commission about the data leak surrounding Cambridge Analytica, as they considered it a closed case years ago. Zuckerberg is due to speak to the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday morning.
BlackRock and Delta Air Lines kick off the first-quarter earnings season on Thursday, with J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo scheduled to report Friday.
Investors have high expectations for this earnings season. According to FactSet, S&P 500 earnings are forecast to have grown by 17.1% last quarter. That would be the biggest quarterly earnings growth since the first quarter of 2011, when they rose 19.5%.
In corporate news, shares of Netflix popped nearly 2% after analysts at Goldman Sachs hiked their price target on the stock to $360 from $315.
In data, the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's March meeting showed that "all" members of the committee see the U.S. economy growing at a strong pace. They also see inflation climbing, which would justify more rate hikes.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note gained, dropping yields to 2.78% from Tuesday’s 2.80%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $1.26 a barrel to $66.77 U.S.
Gold prices moved up $10.00 to $1,355.90 U.S. an ounce.
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