Canada’s main equity index closed lower Friday amid mounting trade war tensions between the United States and China, reviving fears of a global economic slowdown.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index was off 41.11 points at 1601.75
On the earnings front -- Flight training company CAE Inc. topped expectations as it reported higher fourth-quarter profit and revenue compared with a year ago. The Montreal-based company says it earned $122.3 million attributable to shareholders or 46 cents per share for the quarter ended March 31, compared with a profit of $82.3 million or 31 cents per share a year ago. Revenue totalled $1.02 billion, up from $720.9 million.
Shares of Air Canada were higher on its bid to buy Canadian tour operator Transat AT which would boost its leisure travel business.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and Canada on Friday said they reached a deal to end tariffs imposed by Washington on aluminum and steel products from Canada, while Canada will remove all retaliatory tariffs.
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.03 cents to 74.26 cents
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 0.97 points to 609.15
Four of the 12 Toronto subgroups were higher, with Gold up 1.26%, Consumer Staples ahead 1.24% and Industrials stronger by 0.73%.
On the downside, Energy issues were down 2.51%, Real Estate off 1.66% and Financials lower by 1.06%.
June gold on Comex lost $10.50, or 0.8%, to settle at $1,275.70 an ounce.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks bounced back from losses Friday but still closed lower as trade-related jitters overshadowed strong economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 98.68 points, or 0.4%, to 25,764 and the S&P 500 index lost 16.79 points, or 0.6%, to 2,859.53. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 81.76 points, or 1%, to 7,816.28.
The Dow shed 0.7% for the week, bringing its weekly losing streak to four, the longest since May 2016. The S&P 500 fell 0.8% on the week while the Nasdaq dropped 1.3%.
A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce called the Trump administration’s moves to raise tariffs last week, and the threat of additional tariffs on the roughly $300 billion in annually imported Chinese so far untouched by new duties, “bullying behavior,” that has resulted in “severe negotiating setbacks.”
Chinese state media also took aim at the Trump administration’s decision to put Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. on a list of entities that are working contrary to U.S. interests, which could result in U.S. companies needed to secure special permits to sell the company chips it relies on for end products.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. shares shed 4.48%, after the company announced a deal to buy supercomputer manufacturer Cray Inc. for $1.3 billion.
Semiconductor firm Nvidia Corp. dipped 2.28 percent, after it reported earnings Thursday evening that beat severely lowered expectations for the first quarter. Nvidia, however, declined to reiterate a fully year forecast while indicating that demand for the data-center market remains week.
Shares of Pinterest Inc. sank 14% after the social media company announced first-quarter losses of $41.4 million, which were three times as large as analysts had expected.
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index in May climbed to a reading of 102.4, a 15-year high, from April’s reading of 97.2. Economists expected a reading of 97.1.
West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery fell 11 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $62.76 a barrel.
The 10-year Treasury note yield fell 1.1 basis points to 2.396%, bouncing off an intraday low of 2.364%. The benchmark yield slipped 5.9 basis points this week.
