Indices in Canada’s largest centre opened Wednesday, weighed down by health-care stocks and worries over rising U.S. yields.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index dipped 19.23 points to open the mid-week session at 15,457.77
The Canadian dollar retreated 0.3 cents to 77.67 cents U.S.
Among health-care issues, Canopy Growth settled 38 cents, or 1.4%, to $27.86, while Valeant Pharmaceuticals slumped 46 cents, or 2.1%, to $21.94.
Cenovus Energy posted a first-quarter loss on Wednesday, hurt in part by maxed-out pipelines that hampered efforts to move crude to the United States and weighed on prices of Canadian heavy oil.
Cenovus shares nosed up a penny to $12.20
CIBC raised the target price on Pinnacle Renewable Holdings to $15.50 from $15.00.
Pinnacle shares were flat at $14.04.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 4.38 points to 784.86
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were negative in the first hour, as health-care sidled lower 1.2%, while gold dulled in price 0.7%, and materials were off 0.6%.
The five gainers were co-led by telecoms and industrials, each up 0.2%, and energy, inching up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Wednesday, adding to losses from the previous session, as investors fretted over interest rates reaching multiyear highs.
Investors also worried that corporations may not be able to maintain their pace of earnings growth.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was again negative, this time, 146.05 points to start Wednesday at 23,878.08
The S&P 500 slouched 16.06 points to 2,618.50
The NASDAQ Composite index slid 64.86 points to 6,942.49
The move lower in equities is taking place despite a string of strong corporate earnings. Dow member Boeing reported earnings and revenue that easily beat expectations. Twitter posted a better-than-expected profit and revenue for the first quarter. Comcast also posted stronger-than-forecast earnings and revenue.
On Tuesday, bellwether Caterpillar posted earnings and revenue that beat expectations, but the shares fell after the company's CFO said their first-quarter results may have been the "high watermark" for the year. Those remarks helped push the market lower in the previous session.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped slightly, raising yields to 3.01% from Tuesday’s 3%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regained 13 cents a barrel to $67.83 U.S.
Gold prices dropped $10.00 to $1,323.00 U.S. an ounce.
