Canada's main stock index fell slightly midday Monday, despite trying to recover from last session's fall, as a rally in utilities and consumer stocks helped offset losses in some other sectors.
Even so, the index is on track to post its best month since June, and clock its third straight quarterly gain.
The TSX Composite Index shed 3.67 points to greet noon at 16,690.60
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.01 cents at 75.53 cents U.S.
The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was AltaGas, which jumped 59 cents, or 3.1%, to $19.86, after announcing plans to sell its stake in the Central Penn Line Meade Pipeline for $870 million.
Alimentation Couche-Tard rose 59 cents, or 1.5%, to $40.92, while a 1.9% gain – or $7.59, to $412.49, in shares of e-commerce software maker Shopify lifted tech stocks
Wesdome Gold descended 65 cents, or 10.1%, the most on the TSX, to $5.77. The second-biggest decliner was Silvercorp Metals, down 51 cents, or 9%, to $5.15, in line with a move lower in silver prices
On the economic front, Statistics Canada’s industrial product price index rose 0.2% in August. Higher prices for meat, fish and dairy products and for primary non-ferrous metal products were mostly offset by lower prices for energy and petroleum products.
Meanwhile, the agency’s raw materials price index fell 1.8%, mainly as a result of lower prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faded 10.45 points by noon, to 559.13.
Eight of the 12 Toronto subgroups were positive by noon hour ET. Information technology muscled up 1.3%, while industrials bettered themselves by 1%, and utilities improved 0.9%.
The four laggards were weighed most by health-care, down 2.8%, gold, faltering 2.7%, and materials, sinking 1.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks traded higher on Monday, the last day of the month, as investors kept an eye on the latest trade developments between the U.S. and China.
The Dow Jones Industrials hiked 165.11 points to 26,985.36
The S&P 500 marched ahead 21.21 points to 2,983,
The NASDAQ Composite restocked 59.65 points to 7,999.27,
Tech was the best-performing sector in the S&P 500, climbing 1% as Apple shares rose 2.1% on a price-target increase by an analyst at J.P. Morgan. The analyst’s new price target implies a more-than 20% increase for the tech giant over the next 12 months.
U.S. and China trade delegations are due to meet on Oct. 10 as both sides try to move closer to a deal. Both countries have slapped tariffs on billions of dollars worth of their goods, dampening expectations for economic and corporate profit growth.
The major indexes were headed for a mixed monthly performance. The NASDAQ was down slightly for September entering Monday’s session while the S&P 500 and Dow were up more than 1%.
Monday also marked the end of the third quarter. Both the Dow and S&P 500 were headed for their third straight quarterly gains. The NASDAQ, meanwhile, was on pace to notch its first quarterly decline of 2019.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury were slightly higher, lowering yields to Friday’s 1.68%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slipped 64 cents to $55.27 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dropped $32.60 to $1,473.80 U.S. an ounce.
Related Stories
