Canadian stocks were in the red Monday, amid reports of lower existing-home sales and prices in June as well as the largest net foreign inflow on record for May.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index were negative 12.81 points, to approach the midway point of the day at 11,501.72, off its lows of the morning.
The Canadian dollar traded lower by 0.20 cents to 98.48 cents U.S.
Shares of Research in Motion slid 2.3% after a Northern California jury on Saturday reached a verdict requiring the BlackBerry maker to pay $147.2 million U.S. in a patent case.
Glencore International Plc has won a Canadian regulator's approval for its roughly $6.1-billion takeover of grain handler Viterra Inc.
In economic matters, Statistics Canada revealed this morning that foreigners bought up a record $26.1 billion of Canadian securities in May, most of them government debt securities. Canadian investors made $1.3 billion purchase of foreign securities in the month, following a divestment in April.
Moreover, national resale housing activity dipped 1.3% last month over July, according to statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity stood 4.4% below levels in June 2011, marking the first year-over-year decline since April 2011.
CREA also said the number of newly listed homes climbed 1.4% from May to June. Price gains remained strong in Toronto, continued slowing in Greater Vancouver, and picked up in Calgary.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gave back 3.10 points to 1,183.86. The Nasdaq Canada index slid 2.13 points to 343.
In all, 10 of the 14 Toronto subgroups were down by noon, weighed mostly by metals and mining, off 1.8%, global base metals, down 1.1%, and consumer discretionary stocks, sinking 0.6%.
The four gainers were led by consumer staples, strengthening 0.5%, energy, gathering 0.4%, and real-estate, improving 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks were under pressure Monday as investors moved into Treasuries, sending the 10-year yield to a record low, following disappointing June retail sales data.
The Dow Jones Industrials remained weaker by 31.15 points to approach noon at 12,745.94
The S&P 500 subtracted 1.48 points to 1,355.30. The Nasdaq Composite Index demurred 2.53 points to 2,905.94.
Concerns about the slowing U.S. economy sparked a flight into U.S. government debt, perceived as a safe haven. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell as low as 1.44% Monday, a new intraday record.
Fears were triggered by a weaker-than-expected report on retail sales.
Consumers kept a tight grip on their wallets for a third straight month as concerns about slower job creation, stalled global growth and the European debt crisis loomed.
Meanwhile, investors also kept a close eye on news from the corporate front, with earnings reports out in full swing this week. Citigroup kicked off the busy week by topping analysts' forecasts, even as its quarterly revenue declined 10% from a year ago and fell short of estimates.
Citi's earnings follows results from JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, which both reported Friday.
Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson and a slew of tech firms, including Yahoo, Google, Intel and Microsoft will all be reporting this week.
Shares of biopharmaceutical company Human Genome Sciences rose, as rival GlaxoSmithKlein is expected to announce that it's raising its buyout offer by a buck a share to $14 U.S., according to news reports.
Nokia shares fell after the cell phone maker said it would slash the price of its flagship smartphone in the United States. The cost of the Lumia 900 will drop to $49.99 U.S., as the company struggles to gain ground against the more popular Apple and Samsung.
Shares of Visa and MasterCard advanced, following an announcement late Friday that the credit card companies had settled a massive antitrust case with merchants.
Economically speaking, retail sales for June came in weak, dropping 0.5% from the previous month and bucking economists' expectations for a 0.2% increase. Nearly every sector took a hit, from furniture and electronics shops to gas stations and sporting goods stores.
Elsewhere, the Empire Manufacturing survey for New York State rose to 7.4 in July, from 2.3 the prior month. Economists were expecting a reading of 3.8.
Business inventories rose 0.3% in May, according to data from the Census Bureau. Economists were expecting inventories to rise 0.2% from the prior month.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury jumped, pushing the yield down to 1.44% from Friday’s 1.50%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil for August delivery gained 32 cents to $87.42 U.S. a barrel.
Gold futures for August delivery fell $1.20 to $1,592 U.S. an ounce
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