Stocks in Canada’s biggest market fell on Friday as financial shares slipped, offsetting gains for gold stocks as gold prices rose.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index slid 11.08 points to begin Friday at 16,192.93
The Canadian dollar strengthened 0.24 cents at 81.02 cents U.S.
National Bank of Canada cut the rating on First Majestic Silver to sector perform from outperform
First Majestic shares opened Friday up 14 cents, or 1.7%, to $8.20.
National Bank of Canada cut the rating on Rogers Communications to sector perform from outperform. Rogers shares decreased 24 cents to $60.10.
RBC cut the rating on TSO3 Inc. to sector perform from outperform. TSO3 lost 24 cents, or 13.3%, to $1.56.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada revealed that this country’s consumer price index rose 1.9% on a year-over-year basis in December, following a 2.1% increase in November.
On a seasonally-adjusted monthly basis, the Consumer Price Index was up 0.2% in December.
Annually, the increase in the CPI was 1.6% in 2017, which followed gains of 1.4% in 2016 and 1.1% in 2015.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 2.95 points to start Friday at 883.17
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were better to start out, with gold mightier by 0.5%, energy stronger by 0.3%, and real-estate up 0.2%.
The five laggards were weighed most by consumer staples, down 0.4%, while health-care and financials sagged 0.2% each.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks opened higher on Friday as quarterly earnings top estimates, while the economy continues to grow.
The Dow Jones industrial average improved 72.69 points on Thursday’s all-time high to 26,465.48
The S&P 500 added 11.48 points to Thursday’s record high to 2,850.73, with tech as the best-performing sector.
The NASDAQ picked up 35.48 points to 7,446.65
AbbVie, Honeywell, Intel and Rockwell are among the latest companies to report better-than expected earnings and revenue.
Overall, this earnings season has been strong thus far. Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported as of Friday morning, 77% have reported-better-than-expected earnings while 79% have surpassed sales estimates.
Wall Street also digested key U.S. economic data on Friday. The Commerce Department the U.S. economy grew by 2.6% during the fourth quarter of 2017. Economists expected a gain of 3%.
Meanwhile, U.S. durable goods orders rose 2.9% in December, according to the Commerce Department. Economists expected an increase of 0.8%.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note hesitated, raising yields to 2.65% from Thursday’s 2.62%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 36 cents a barrel to $65.87 U.S.
Gold prices dulled $11.20 to $1,351.70 U.S. an ounce.
