Canada's main stock index fell on Tuesday, dragged down by shares in mining and energy companies as bullion and crude oil prices weakened.
The TSX began Tuesday down 52.96 points to 18,719.22.
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.24 cents at 79.42 cents U.S.
Canadian health officials said they would stop offering AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to people aged under 55 and require a new analysis of the shot's benefits and risks based on age and gender.
A merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications would result in sufficient market competition, their chief executives said on Monday, as a Canadian parliamentary committee grilled the firms' officials on anti-trust aspects of the deal.
Rogers shares began the session down 77 cents, or 1.3%, to $59.60, while those for Shaw edged higher three cents to $33.32.
TD Securities raised the target price on Advantage Oil & Gas to $3.25 from $2.50. Advantage shares inched back three cents, or 1.3%, to $2.34.
TD Securities raised the target price on Boardwalk REIT to $48.00 from $47.00. Boardwalk units declined 20 cents to $36.21.
CIBC raised the rating on Canadian Western Bank to outperform from neutral. Western shares went south five cents to $32.26.
On the economic docket, Statistics Canada reported that the total number of payroll employees in January was 1.2 million (or 7%) lower than in February 2020.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange sank 2.26 points to 933.57.
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower to start out, as gold slumped 2.5%, materials slipped 1.8%, and utilities, off 0.7%.
The three gainers were financials, eking up 0.2%, while consumer discretionary and industrials each nicked up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday as a jump in bond yields prompted investors to dump high-flying tech shares.
The Dow Jones Industrials backed off 115.46 points from Monday’s all-time record to 33,055.91.
The S&P 500 subtracted 17.7 points, to 3,953.69.
The NASDAQ Composite deleted 104.01 points to 12,955.64. Apple and Microsoft slid more than 1%. Tesla fell more than 2%.
ViacomCBS and Discovery both rebounded on Monday after registering heavy losses last week prompted by Archegos Capital Management selling large blocks of stock late last week.
Some bank stocks also bounced back. Goldman Sachs climbed 2.2%. JPMorgan and Bank of America rose more than 1% each.
Credit Suisse and Nomura posted heavy losses this week after warning of "significant" hits to first-quarter results following the hedge fund’s selling.
Still, despite the recent volatility, the Dow is firmly higher for the month 7.2%, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.2%.
Prices for 10-Year Treasurys fell, raising yields to 1.74% from Monday’s 1.71%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lost $1.04 to $60.52 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slouched $28.60 to $1,686.
