Equities in Toronto were little changed on Wednesday, as gains in materials were offset by a slide in energy and tech stocks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index handed back 14.39 points to open Wednesday at 15,714.12
The Canadian dollar improved 0.07 cents to 80.13 cents U.S
Toronto-Dominion Bank is opening an office in Tel Aviv, to recruit workers with cutting edge cybersecurity skills, after finding a shortage of talent in North America.
TD shares fell back 29 cents to $71.38.
Raymond James cut the price target on Crown Capital Partners to $11.50 from $12.00. Crown Capital shares were static at $9.70.
Canaccord Genuity raised the price target on Pengrowth Energy to $0.90 from $0.85. Shares in Pengrowth shed a penny to $1.28.
Toronto home sales plunged in September from a year earlier and prices were down 15.5% from their April peak, but sales and prices inched up from August, suggesting housing in Canada's largest city may be stabilizing, data showed.
Canadian auto sales rose 7.7% in September, driven by strong demand for trucks, which made up for nearly 70% of total sales in the country.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 2.76 points to 784.07
The 12 TSX subgroups were divided evenly between gainers and losers, gold leading the former group, climbing 0.5%, materials were ahead 0.4%, and consumer staples were 0.2% to the good.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by information technology, down 0.9%, industrials, weaker by 0.4%, and energy, down 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks opened mixed on Wednesday as Wall Street took a breather from back-to-back stong sessions.
The Dow Jones Industrials continued on the move, adding 13.07 points to Tuesday’s record, to 22,654.74. A decline in Apple shares contributed the most to the Dow's losses.
The S&P 500 removed 0.59 points to 2,533.99 from Tuesday’s all-time record to 2,533.88, with information technology among the worst-performing sectors.
The NASDAQ subtracted 4.51 points from Tuesday’s record high to 6,527.21
Helping lift stocks was regained enthusiasm around the possibility of tax reform. Last week, Republicans unveiled sweeping changes to the U.S. tax code. The proposed changes would lower the corporate tax rate to 20% from 35%.
Investors sifted through key economic data on Wednesday. ADP and Moody's said that private-sector jobs grew by 135,000 in September, which is a sharp decline from August. The report from ADP and Moody's often serves as a preview to the government's employment situation report. The latest government read on jobs growth is set for release Friday morning.
Other data scheduled for release Wednesday include the ISM nonmanufacturing index for September and oil inventories at 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. in New York, respectively.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note were down a bit, raising yields to 2.34% from Tuesday’s 2.33%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices faded 16 cents a barrel to $50.26 U.S.
Gold prices recovered $3.20 to $1,277.80 U.S. an ounce
