Canada's main stock index opened flat on Wednesday, following U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's bullish tone on Tuesday on the state of that country’s economy.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index ditched 0.02 points to kick off Wednesday at 16,519.22
The Canadian dollar slid 0.19 cents at 75.58 cents U.S.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau is set to stay in his post when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffles his cabinet, which could be as early as this week.
Among industrial concerns, Canadian National Railway chugged along $1.97, or 1.6%, to $112.85.
Among consumer discretionary issues, Magna International triumphed 84 cents, or 1.1%, to $80.80.
The get-up-and-go of energy stocks got up and went, as Canadian Natural Resources sagged 50 cents, or 1.1%, to $47.10.
Raymond James cut the rating on Arizona Mining to market perform from outperform. Arizona shares notched half a cent higher to $6.16.
RBC cut the rating on Centerra Gold to underperform from sector perform. Centerra dropped six cents to $6.06.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange inched up 0.03 points to 713.14.
The 12 TSX subgroups were equally divided in the first hour of trade, as industrials gained 0.6%, consumer discretionaries acquired 0.4%, and information technology took on 0.2%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most heavily by energy stocks, thundering 1.1% lower, while gold and utilities each dropped 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks traded along the flat line on Wednesday as a decline in technology stocks offset strong quarterly earnings from some of the biggest U.S. companies.
The Dow Jones Industrials pointed upward 19.74 points to begin Wednesday at 25,139.63, with Walgreens Boots Alliance outperforming.
The S&P 500 dipped 1.92 points to 2,807.63, as industrials rose 0.8%
The NASDAQ doffed 26.88 points to 7,828.24
Shares of Alphabet fell 0.3% after the European Union fined Google $5 billion over antitrust abuse. Netflix fell 0.7%, slipping for the second day in a row after posting weaker-than-expected subscriber growth for the previous quarter. Amazon shares fell 0.1% after Prime Day concluded.
Tech's decline comes in the middle of the latest corporate earnings season. Morgan Stanley reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the previous quarter, boosted by strong trading and investment banking revenue. The bank’s stock rose more than 3.3%
Transports CSX and United Continental also posted stronger-than-forecast profits and sales, sending CSX’s shares higher by 5.6% and United’s gained 8%.
American Express, eBay and IBM are among the companies scheduled to report earnings after the close.
U.S. housing starts fell 12% in June to a nine-month low, the Commerce Department said. The percentage drop was also the biggest since
November 2016. According to Bespoke Investment Group, it was the biggest miss relative to expectations since January 2007. The Mortgage Bankers Association said.mortgage applications also fell 2.5% last week.
Home building stocks fell on the back of the data, as KB Home and Lennar both fell more than 1%.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury were unchanged, keeping yields at Tuesday’s 2.86%.
Oil prices lost 69 cents to $67.39 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices fell $4.30 at $1,228.10 U.S. an ounce.
