Equities in Canada’s largest market fell in early trade on Wednesday, hurt by a tumble in shares of Hudson’s Bay Co after the department store operator posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss, while financial and energy stocks also weighed.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index faded 38.08 points to open Wednesday at 15,877.60
The Canadian dollar recovered 0.18 cents to 78.95 cents U.S.
Barrick Gold, the world's biggest gold miner, is staking new ground in a dogged push to overhaul its operations, seeking scarce artificial intelligence experts to oversee projects using technology for everything from exploration to robot-run mining.
Barrick shares lost 22 cents, or 1.3%, to $17.29.
Barclays raised the target price on Bank of Montreal to $98 from $97. BMO shares gained 12 cents to $99.26.
Barclays raised the target price on Laurentian Bank of Canada to $62.00 from $57.00. Laurentian shares dipped 27 cents to $55.73.
RBC raised the target price on Roots Corp. to $12.00 from $11.00. Roots shares raised themselves 12 cents, or 1.1%, to $10.67.
The Bank of Canada made its last rate announcement for 2017, and, as expected, maintained its target for the overnight rate at 1%. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1.25% and the deposit rate is 0.75%
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eked up 0.69 points to 784.63
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were down in the first hour, with health-care slumping 1.3%, while energy and consumer discretionary stocks faltered 1% each.
The four gainers were led by telecoms, up 0.5%, consumer staples, up 0.2%, and utilities, up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities traded little change on Wednesday as their global counterparts also pulled back.
The Dow Jones industrials pointed 32.45 points lower to 24,148.19
The S&P 500 fell 2.24 points to 2,627.33, with energy leading decliners and utilities outperforming.
The NASDAQ moved forward 2.99 points to 6,765.20
Companies reporting earnings Wednesday include H&R Block Inc., Brown Forman Inc., and NCI Building Systems Inc.
Financials, one of the sectors that would theoretically benefit greatly from lower corporate taxes, have been on a tear recently. The sector is up nearly 2% over the past week. Tech, meanwhile, is down more than 1% in the same time period.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note gained, lowering yields to 2.32% from Tuesday’s 2.35%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices deleted 93 cents a barrel to $56.69 U.S.
Gold prices gained $1.30 to $1,266.20 U.S. an ounce.
