Equities in Toronto fell on Tuesday, with materials leading declines as prices of most metals fell on a firmer U.S. dollar and rating agency Moody's cut its outlook on China's government credit ratings.
The TSX Composite dipped 4.49 points to open Tuesday at 20,405.72.
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.26 cents at 73.60 cents U.S.
Among individual stocks, the National Bank of Canada raised Russel Metals stocks to "outperform" from "sector perform". Russel shares hiked 53 cents or 1.3%, to $41.69.
Elsewhere, North West Company gained $1.47, or 4.1%, to $37.27, after RBC raised its price target on the retailer's stock.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 4.96 points to 539.20.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups gained ground in the first hour, with consumer staples taking on 0.9%, communications up 0.5%, and consumer discretionary stocks, prospering 0.4%.
The five laggards were weighed most by gold, down 1.2%, materials surrendering 1.1%, and health-care, off 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped for a second day Tuesday as a recent rally on Wall Street lost steam.
The 30-stock index swooned 142.74 points at 36,061.70.
The S&P 500 dipped 7.77 points to 4,562.01.
The NASDAQ gained 26.12 points to 14,211.61.
GitLab popped 8% after the open-source software development platform beat quarterly financial expectations and issued strong guidance for the current quarter.
Tuesday’s moves follow Monday’s losing session, which called into question whether the market had run up too far too fast. Monday’s pullback came on the heels of five consecutive positive weeks for the three major averages.
Despite recent performance, the three indexes are still up on the quarter and year. That underscores the strength of the market’s rally leading up to recent moves.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury shot higher, dropping yields to 4.19% from Monday’s 4.26%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices recovered 88 cents to $73.92 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost $5.40 to $2,036.80.
