Stocks in Toronto inched higher on Monday as gold miners and other materials stocks gained on fading expectations for a U.S. interest rate hike and global jitters about whether Britain will vote to leave the European Union.
The S&P/TSX Composite lapsed 34.68 points to 14,002.86
The Canadian dollar fell 0.05 cents to 78.22 cents U.S.
Brookfield Asset Management declined 2.5% to $44.43. Bank of Montreal declined 0.5% to $82.74 and Bank of Nova Scotia fell 0.4% to $65.02.
Gold prices hit their highest since mid-May on the back of the fading risk appetite, helping Barrick Gold Corp jump 3.2% to $25.79.
Fertilizer company Potash Corp advanced 4.1% to $22.58.
Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd advanced 17.9% to $4.34 after providing a business update last week.
Penn West Petroleum Ltd soared 44.8% to $1.68 as multiple brokerages upped their target prices on the company after it said it would sell its Saskatchewan assets for $975 million on Friday.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange remained buoyant 3.61 points to 719.20
Nine of the 13 TSX subgroups were lower by noon, with real-estate sliding 1.3%, while telecoms doffed 0.9%, and consumer staples lost 0.8%.
The four gainers were led by metals and mining, marching ahead 4.2%, materials, up 1.1%, and energy better by 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded in a range Monday, with energy leading advancers as oil attempted gains, as investors looked ahead to the week's scheduled Fed meeting and the upcoming U.K. vote on whether to leave the European Union.
The Dow Jones Industrials slumped 50.59 points to 17,814.75, with Microsoft leading decliners and Exxon Mobil the top advancer.
The S&P 500 lost 7.28 points at 2,088.79. Financials traded slightly higher as one of the top S&P 500 advancers in morning trade.
The NASDAQ retreated 29.04 points to 4,865.51
Tech was one of the greatest laggards. Shares of Microsoft briefly fell more than 4.5% in morning trade, after news released just before
the market open that the tech giant is purchasing LinkedIn for $196.00 U.S. per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $26.2 billion U.S. that is expected to close this calendar year.
Shares of LinkedIn jumped more than 45% in morning trade.
In other deal news, technology security firm Symantec, which makes the Norton antivirus, said it would buy privately held cybersecurity company Blue Coat for $4.65 billion U.S.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained, lowering yields to 1.61% from Friday’s 1.64%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lowered 28 cents a barrel to $48.81 U.S.
Gold prices gained $10.70 to $1,286.60 U.S. an ounce.
