Canadian equities headed lower Monday, with the stock market’s benchmark index poised to log its fourth losing session in a row as traders weighed election results out of France, Greece and Germany.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index remained negative by 10.57 points – though well off its lows for the day -- to close at 11,860.66. The benchmark equities index had already tallied a three-session loss of 3.7% before Monday’s open.
The Canadian dollar perked 0.27 cents to 100.68 cents U.S.
Shares of Thompson Creek Metals Co. dropped 16.5% to $4.60, and Allied Nevada Gold Corp. saw its stock fall 11.1% to $25.30 after the companies posted first-quarter results.
Nexen Inc. shares also fell by 3.3% to $17.20. The company said it’s abandoning drilling operations at a site in the Gulf of Mexico after failing to find commercial hydrocarbons.
Elsewhere, shares in Suncor dipped 0.1% to $30.15, while rival Imperial Oil faltered 0.4% to $44.37
In the gold sector, prices for Barrick Gold Corp. demurred 0.1% to $37.68, while Kinross Gold fell 1.2% to $8.24, and Goldcorp fell 1.5% to $35.90.
The Bank of Canada’s Deputy Governor John Murray will hold a speech at 5:30 p.m. Eastern, the Scotia Capital analysts said, and "one might expect a housing comment or two."
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada told us this morning that building permits reached $6.8 billion in March, up 4.7% from February following a 7.6% increase the previous month, mostly due to higher construction intentions for both institutional and commercial buildings, and mostly in Ontario.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 7.63 points to 1,397.42, while the Nasdaq Canada fell 7.52 points to 382.22.
Eight of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower by the close. Metals and mining swooned 2.9%, while materials were down 1.6%, and gold stocks trailed Friday’s close by 1.3%.
The half-dozen gainers were led by utilities, up 1%, while telecoms and real estate issues gained 0.6% each.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks recovered Monday afternoon from modest losses earlier in the day as investors considered the implications of leadership changes in France and Greece.
The Dow Jones Industrials were down 29.74 points to close at 13,008.50.
The S&P 500 nosed up 0.50 points to 1,369.60. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index picked up 1.42 to 2,957.76.
The swing from negative to positive territory mirrored the move in European markets. Stocks in France and Germany initially tumbled about 2% Monday, but bounced back as investors continued to digest the results.
Shares of Tyson Foods popped after the company posted better-than-expected results, and said it expects momentum to continue in the second and third quarters.
Shares of bailed-out insurer AIG fell, after the Treasury Department announced that it was planning to sell 163.9 million shares for $30.50 U.S. each -- down from Friday's closing price of $32.83.
Dow component Walt Disney rose after its film "The Avengers" smashed opening weekend box office records, with $200.3 million in domestic ticket sales. The numbers came in far above the previous record of $169.2 million set by "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" last July.
World markets were mixed Monday after Socialist Francois Hollande defeated president Nicolas Sarkozy, leaving investors worried about the future of austerity throughout Europe.
Hollande has advocated a shift away from austerity policies to deal with the continent's sovereign debt crisis and advocated for more economic stimulus. But the concern is whether or not such policies will derail previously-announced bailout deals, in which stronger economies such as Germany provide assistance for the weaker economies facing default on their debt.
In the Greek elections the two most established parties both lost seats in parliament, leaving no party with anything close the majority of seats needed to form a government. The vote could set the stage for a new round of elections, and prolonged uncertainty for how Greece will comply with terms of the European bailout package.
On the economic slate, analysts surveyed by Briefing.com expect consumer credit to have expanded by $11 billion U.S. in March, after an $8.7-billion U.S. increase in the month prior.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury dipped, pushing the yield back up to Friday’s 1.88%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil fell 44 cents to $98.07 U.S.
Gold futures for June delivery fell $6.10 to settle at $1,639.10 U.S. an ounce.
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