Stocks in Canada’s largest centre backtracked from Tuesday’s record highs, as losses in the energy and gold sectors weighed on the proceedings.
The S&P/TSX Composite thundered lower 92.15 points to close Wednesday at 15,830.22.
Still, the index is up more than 3.5% since the start of the year after notching a 17.5% gain in 2016.
The Canadian dollar was pretty much unchanged at 76.06 cents U.S.
Energy took the biggest bruises, as EnCana Corp. shed 93 cents, or 5.8%, to $15.10, while Baytex Energy doffed 27 cents, or 5.1%, to $5.04.
Gold stocks also had a rough time of it, as Barrick Gold retreated 35 cents, or 1.3%, to $26.10, while Kinross Gold dropped eight cents, or 1.6%, to $4.96.
Among materials, Katanga Mining swooned 20 cents, or 33.9%, to 39 cents, while Agrium Inc. fell 51 cents to $135.29.
Only industrials showed some spark on the day, as Air Canada gained 24 cents, or 1.8%, to $13.67, while Canadian National Railways eked up 18 cents to $94.82.
On the economic ledger, Statistics Canada reported that retail sales had their monthly win streak snapped at four in December, decreasing 0.5% in the last month of calendar 2016.
Drops were widespread as lower sales were reported in nine of 11 sub-sectors, representing 82% of retail trade.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange retreated 8.24 points – or nearly 1% -- to 836.73
Eight of the 12 subgroups were negative, as energy faded 3%, gold was off 1.6%, and materials weakened 1.2%.
The four gainers were led by industrials, up 0.4%, telecoms, better by 0.2%, and consumer staples, eking up 0.04%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities closed mixed Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's previous meeting hinted that a rate hike coming "fairly soon”.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 32.6 points to 20,775.60, notching its ninth straight record close, with DuPont leading advancers and Intel sinking.
The S&P 500 docked 2.56 points to 2,362.82, with energy leading five sectors lower and utilities outperforming.
The NASDAQ slid 5.32 points to 5,860.63.
Shares of DuPont rose after media reports that European Union anti-trust regulators are set to clear DuPont's merger with Dow Chemical.
Wall Street was eagerly awaiting the release of the Fed minutes, as they looked for more clues about when — and how many times — the Fed would raise rates this year.
The Fed's policymaking committee is scheduled to meet again on March 15, with market expectations for a rate hike then around 27%, according to media reports.
In economic news, weekly mortgage applications stateside fell 2% for the week ending Feb. 17 amid lackluster refinancing. Existing home sales rose 3.3% in January.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note resurged, lowering yields to 2.41% from Tuesday’s 2.43%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices doffed 73 cents to $53.60 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices regained 70 cents to $1,239.60 U.S. an ounce.
