Cronos, Aurora Lose Most
North American stocks, not the least of them in Toronto, eased off from record gains Friday, weighed mostly by losses in cannabis issues, and energy concerns.
The TSX Composite Index fell 74.32 points Friday from Thursday’s all-time high, to 17,040.20
The Canadian dollar was unchanged to 75.30 cents U.S.
Health-care proved a real albatross on the markets, with Aurora Cannabis dropping 16 cents, or 4.6%, to $3.32, and Cronos Group falling 26 cents, or 2.8%, to $9.02
Energy also ran less energetic, as Crescent Point Energy slid 18 cents, or 3.8%, to $4.62, while Husky Energy lost 29 cents, or 2.9%, to $9.75.
Tech shares also took some knocks, as Enghouse Systems stumbled 71 cents, or 1.7%, to $41.39, while EXFO lost 22 cents, or 3.6%, to $5.95.
Gold led gainers, as OceanaGold surged seven cents, or 2.7%, to $2.64, while Kirkland Lake Gold rose $1.42, or 2.6%, to $56.22.
Materials gained, too, as MAG Silver soared 54 cents, or 3.9%, to $14.27, while Pan American Silver jumped 66 cents, or 2.7%, to $25.57.
Among communications, Rogers was a winner, up 75 cents, or 1.2%, to $64.50, while Cineplex starred 17 cents to $25.44.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that our economy fought its way up in the third quarter. Real gross domestic product grew 0.3%, following a 0.9% increase in the second quarter.
Third-quarter growth was led by higher business investment and increased household spending, boosting final domestic demand by 0.8%. For the individual month of September, GDP edged up 0.1%, as 13 out of 20 industrial sectors increased.
The agency’s industrial product price index edged up by 0.1% in October, primarily due to higher prices for energy and petroleum products.
The raw material price index was down 1.9% during the same month, primarily due to lower prices for crude energy products.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reported that average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $1,042 in September, up 0.9% from August.
Compared with September 2018, earnings grew by 4.0%, continuing an upward trend observed since March.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 0.63 points to end Friday, the week and the month at 531.68
All but three of the 12 Toronto subgroups lost ground, with health-care off 1.7%, energy handing back 1.3%, and industrials, falling 0.6%.
The three gainers proved to be gold, ahead 1.2%, materials, progressing 0.7%, and communications, up 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks closed lower on Friday as investors awaiting a concrete trade deal took some money off the table after a strong month.
The Dow Jones Industrials dropped 74.14 points from Wednesday’s all-time record, to end the day, week and month at 28,089.86
The S&P 500 fell 5.62 points to 3,148.01
The NASDAQ subtracted 15.27 points from Wednesday’s all-time peak to 8,689.90
Equity markets were closed Thursday for Thanksgiving. Friday’s was an abbreviated session.
The major averages posted strong monthly gains despite Friday’s losses. The S&P 500 climbed 3.4% to notch its biggest one-month gain since June, when it rallied more than 6%. The Dow acquired 3.7% and the NASDAQ gained 4.5% for November. They also had their best month since June. For the week, the Dow gained 0.6% while the S&P 500 took on 1% and NASDAQ advanced 1.7%.
Stocks have been on fire this month in large part because of optimism around the U.S.-China trade negotiations. Back in October, President Donald Trump said the two sides had reached a “phase one” trade deal to be signed this month.
But that optimism has taken some hits recently, particularly this week after Trump signed a bill signed legislation supporting protesters in Hong Kong. China’s foreign ministry claimed the U.S. has “sinister intentions” after Trump signed the bill into law.
Wall Street also kept an eye on retail stocks as Black Friday unofficially kicked off the holiday shopping season. Analytics firm ShopperTrak said Black Friday will be the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. So far, shoppers have dropped more than $7 billion online during Black Friday, according to data from Adobe.
Strong sales could point to strength in the U.S. consumer sector, which has been the linchpin in the economy as the trade war wages on.
Retail stocks fell with the broader market on Friday. Best Buy shares dipped 0.1% while Macy’s fell 1%.
For the month, IT services company DXC Technology is the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 this month, rallying 35%. Chipmaker Qorvo jumped 29%.
Charles Schwab also gained more than 20% for the month. Disney shares outperformed in the Dow this month, gaining 16.7% while UnitedHealth climbed nearly 11% over that time period.
Autodesk shares rose more than 22% this month, their biggest one-month gain since May 2017.
Bond markets shut down at 1 p.m. in the States, and prices for the 10-Year U.S. Treasury were higher as the session ended, lowering yields back to Wednesday’s 1.77%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped $2.69 at $55.42 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices strengthened $9.60 to $1,470.40 U.S. an ounce.
