(CORRECTS ITEM IN 4th Paragraph from Bottom; reference to Fed Meeting)
Equities in Toronto fell on Tuesday as lower metal prices weighed on the materials group, while heavyweight financial sector and energy shares edged lower.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index began Tuesday down 52.5 points to 15,577.25
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.1 cents at 74.52 cents U.S.
Uranium behemoth Cameco Corp’s CEO said Monday the world's second-biggest uranium producer is exploring the sale of its U.S. production facilities, as a six-year industry slump drags on.
Cameco shares backed off four cents to $14.53.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International plans to line up a $3.06-billion incremental term loan and junk bond sale as part of a debt restructuring.
Valeant shares lost $1.01, or 6.1%, to $15.65.
CIBC raised the rating on Scotiabank to outperform from neutral. Scotiabank shares inched up four cents to $80.24.
CIBC raised the target price on Canadian Western Bank to $33 from $32. Western Bank shares tallied 35 cents, or 1.1%, to $31.21.
CIBC raised the target price on Royal Bank of Canada to $106.00 from $101.00. RBC shares gained four cents to $99.17.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada said our international merchandise trade balance with the rest of the world posted a third consecutive monthly surplus, widening from $447 million in December to $807 million in January. Exports were up 0.5% while imports edged down 0.3%.
Western University’s IVEY Purchasing Managers’ Index registered at 55 in February, down from 57.2 in January, and 53.4 in February of last year. The survey canvasses purchasing managers at companies on whether their expenditures moved higher, lower, or remained static during the month.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 3.85 points to 806.4
All but one of 12 TSX subgroups were lower in the first hour, with materials sinking 1.2%, gold dulling 0.9% and energy reversing 0.6%.
Only utilities made any gain, and only 0.1% at that.
ON WALLSTREET
Health-care stocks took a hammering on Tuesday, dragging the major U.S. indexes lower, after President Donald Trump tweeted about lowering drug prices.
The Dow Jones Industrials faltered 23.25 to begin Tuesday at 20,931.09,
The S&P 500 surrendered 4.96 points to 2,370.35,
The NASDAQ dropped 7.76 points to 5,841.42.
Trump said he was working on a new system to increase competition in the drugs industry and bring down prices.
Johnson & Johnson was the top drag on the S&P 500 and the Dow, while Amgen had a similar influence on the NASDAQ
The health-care selloff could lead to the first back-to-back losses for the S&P 500 and the Dow in more than one month.
Newly minted shares of Snapchat owner Snap Inc fell 8.5% to $21.70 U.S. after a group representing large institutional investors asked stock index providers to bar the company and others who sell non-voting shares from their stock benchmarks.
Nimble Storage soared 45% after Hewlett Packard said it would buy the data storage provider for $1.09 billion U.S. in cash. HPE's stock was marginally lower.
The Federal Reserve meets next week, and experts say the chances for a rate hike this month are at 83%, up from roughly 30% at the start of last week
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell, raising yields to 2.51% from Monday’s 2.49%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regained 36 cents to $53.56 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices skidded $6.90 to $1,218.60 U.S. an ounce.
