Equities in Canada’s biggest market slipped in early trade on Friday, heading for its first weekly decline since mid-June, as economic data and energy earnings highlighted the damage done by a massive wildfire that hit oil sands production starting in May.
The S&P/TSX Composite fell 7.51 points to open Friday at 14,545.21
The Canadian dollar gained 0.29 cents to 76.29 cents U.S.
Air Canada reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on lower fuel expenses and the country's largest airline cut its cost estimate for the year.
Shares in the Maple Leaf Airline inched up four cents to $9.48.
Enbridge reported a 47.8% fall in quarterly profit as the company's liquids pipeline business was hit by a massive wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Enbridge shares faded 20 cents to $51.20
UBS raised the price target on Cenovus Energy to $20.00 from $19.00, with a neutral rating
Cenovus shares lopped off 17 cents to $18.50.
Paradigm raised the price target on First Quantum Minerals to $15.50 from $8.50. First Quantum fell seven cents to $11.28.
Canaccord Genuity cut the price target on Goldcorp to $27.00 from $30.00. Goldcorp shares gathered 22 cents to $23.58.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that real gross domestic product fell 0.6% in May, the largest monthly decline since March 2009.
The decrease in May was primarily due to lower non-conventional oil extraction, as a result of the Fort McMurray wildfire and evacuation
The agency industrial product price index came in 0.6% higher in June, mainly due to higher prices for energy and petroleum products.
Its raw materials price index jumped 1.8%, as a result of higher prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange was gained 3.64 points to 788.59
Eight of the 13 subgroups were lower to start the session, with health-care and energy down 0.8% each, while real-estate backtracked 0.5%.
The five gainers were led by gold, better by 0.9%, materials, up 0.6%, and consumer staples, up 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded mostly lower Friday as major tech earnings beats countered disappointing results from the energy sector. The advance read on second-quarter gross domestic product also sharply missed expectations.
The Dow Jones Industrials caved 62.59 points to start the day at 18,393.76. Shares of Chevron and Exxon Mobil contributed the most to declines in the Dow
The S&P 500 stumbled 3.69 points to 2,166.37. The energy sector declined more than 1% in morning trade as the greatest laggard in the S&P 500
The NASDAQ Composite dropped 4.87 points to 5,150.12. Both Amazon.com and Alphabet reported earnings after the close Thursday that beat on both the top and bottom line.
Chevron reported a second-quarter loss of 78 cents U.S. a share as it reported $2.8 billion in impairments. The same period last year, the firm reported profit of 30 cents a share. Ex-items, adjusted earnings per share topped expectations by three cents at 35 cents U.S. a share.
Exxon Mobil posted earnings that badly missed expectations.
Other firms of note included United Parcel Service, which posted earnings in-line with expectations, on revenue that beat. Xerox posted earnings that topped estimates, on revenue in-line with forecasts.
Advance read on second-quarter GDP showed a 1.2% annualized growth rate, well below expectations for 2.6%. Consumer spending, which accounted for most of the GDP rebound in the second quarter, increased at a 4.2% rate, the fastest since the fourth quarter of 2014. Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity,
In other economic news, the employment cost index rose 0.6% on a seasonally-adjusted basis, for the three-month period ending June of this year.
Chicago PMI came in at 55.8 in July versus 56.8 in June. Consumer sentiment, and two Federal Reserve speakers are also on the calendar Friday.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained ground, lowering yields to 1.49% from Thursday’s 1.5%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices shed 45 cents a barrel to $40.69 U.S.
Gold prices hiked $7.10 to $1,348.30 U.S. an ounce.
