Canada's main stock index opened lower on Monday as technology stocks tracked a slide in the U.S. tech-heavy NASDAQ, with over 1% jump in energy shares limiting further losses.
The TSX Composite slipped 16.68 points to kick off the week at 20,134.19.
The Canadian dollar took on 0.38 cents to 79.56 cents U.S.
Sun Life Financial said on Sunday it had agreed to buy oral healthcare company DentaQuest for $2.47 billion. Sun Life heightened $1.32, or 2%, to $66.38.
ATB Capital Markets raised the rating on Bombardier to outperform from speculative buy. Bombardier shares fell two cents to $2.19.
CIBC raised the target price on GFL Environmental to $53.00 from $48.00. GFL shares slipped 50 cents, or 1.1%, to $46.81.
Cormark Securities increased the target price on Altius Renewable Royalties to $14.25 from $13.25. Altius shares fell two cents to $9.46.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada said the total value of building permits in Canada decreased 2.1% to $9.7 billion in August. Although most provinces reported increases, notable declines in Ontario and British Columbia pulled the national results lower compared with July.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 0.69 points to 865.19
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were pointed downward at the beginning of the session, with information technology stocks falling 2.6%, health-care down 2.1%m and industrials off 0.6%.
The four gainers were led by energy, rumbling 2.8%, gold, up 0.6%, and materials, better 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 and NASDAQ took losses to start the week as investors continued their rotation out of technology stocks amid rising bond yields.
The Dow Jones Industrials lost 143.43 points to begin Monday at 34,183.04, despite a large gain in Merck
The S&P 500 retreated 35.77 points to 4,321.27.
The NASDAQ Composite ditched 246.46 points, or 1.7%, to 14,320.23,
Large tech shares like Apple, Nvidia, Amazon and Microsoft were lower as investors observed bond yields.
Social media giant Facebook lost 3% after being accused of a “betrayal of democracy” by a whistleblower who revealed her identity on Sunday.
On the positive side, Tesla rose 3% after the company said this weekend that it delivered 241,300 electric vehicles during the third quarter, well above analysts’ estimates.
Merck shares were up another 3%, following through on an 8% surge on Friday after the drug maker said its oral antiviral treatment developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics for COVID-19 reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 50% for patients with mild or moderate cases.
Airlines stayed in the green after Barclays upgraded the North American Airlines sector to positive from neutral. Southwest rose 2.8% after an upgrade to overweight from equal weight from the same analyst.
Energy stocks also rose amid an uptick in oil prices. Exxon Mobil gained 1.4% and ConocoPhillips rallied 2.7%. Chevron advanced 1.3%.
Prices for 10-year Treasurys were lower, raising yields to 1.49% from Friday’s 1.47%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $2.05 to $77.93 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices subtracted one dollar to $1,757.40 U.S. an ounce.
