The Toronto stock market was lower Wednesday as traders started to reassess their estimates for March U.S. employment growth and looked to slower expansion in the American non-manufacturing sector.
The S&P/TSX index dropped 181.55 points, or 1.4%, to reach noon ET at 12,500.25
The Canadian dollar gained 0.12 cents to 98.68 cents U.S.
The energy sector fell as Cenovus Energy declined 50 cents to $31.40.
The TSX gold sector was also off as Barrick Gold Corp. lost 39 cents to $28.32.
May copper shed three cents to $3.35 U.S. a pound and the metals and mining sector was down. Teck Resources gave back 57 cents to $27.25.
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. has suspended engineering contracts with SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. and other partners at the massive Cobre Panama copper project. First Quantum acquired the property as part of its $5.1-billion takeover of Inmet Mining Corp.
The value of the work SNC-Lavalin was contracted to do was estimated to be worth approximately $120 million, which the company said will be debooked from its backlog in the first quarter of 2013. First Quantum fell 38 cents to $18.30 while SNC was down 77 cents at $41.63.
The tech sector was also a weight, as BlackBerry fell 19 cents to $15.15.
The financial sector shed some of its strength while Manulife Financial declined 37 cents to $14.69.
TD Bank Group said its long-time president and chief executive, Ed Clark, will retire on Nov. 1, 2014. Clark’s successor will be Bharat Masrani, 56, who is currently head of TD’s U.S. personal and commercial banking group. TD shares slipped 73 cents to $83.72.
Elsewhere, CAE Inc. shares rose 11 cents to $10.00 as it announced several new military and commercial contracts Wednesday valued at a total of $215 million.
One of the military contracts awarded to the Montreal-based company was for construction of a training facility for the Kuwait air force while others were for training simulators for the Australian navy and U.S. air force. The commercial sales included five full-flight simulators to airlines and aircraft manufacturers in several regions.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals has sharply increased its friendly takeover bid for Obagi Medical Products in response to an offer from a German-based rival. Montreal-based Valeant increased its all-cash bid to $24 U.S. per share from $19.75 U.S. a day after Merz Pharma Group announced its bid of $22 U.S. per share following months of talks.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange shed 17.09 points to 1,052.01
All 14 Toronto subgroups remained negative, weighed mostly by gold stocks, down 3.3%, while materials and the metals and mining group each slid 2.5%
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks lost ground Wednesday, following a weaker-than-forecast report about private sector job growth and sluggish growth in the services sector.
The Dow Jones Industrials stepped back 54.64 points to greet noon at 14,607.40
The S&P 500 index moved lower 8.94 points to 1,561.31. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite reversed 17.94 points to 3,236.93.
On the corporate front, shares of Zynga shot higher after the online gaming firm announced it would soon launch its first real money games -- ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino -- in the U.K.
Monsanto shares rose after the company's profit and earnings topped expectations on strong sales of its biotech seeds.
Shares of ConAgra declined after the food producer said its quarterly profit tumbled 57% due to costs associated with its acquisition of Ralcorp.
J.C. Penney shares edged higher. The company disclosed late Tuesday that it had slashed the pay of CEO Ron Johnson and other executives as the retailer continues to struggle.
Tesla shares dropped as investors were disappointed by the electric car maker's announcement of a new financing option for buyers.
On the economic slate, payroll processing firm ADP reported Wednesday that the U.S private sector added 158,000 jobs in March.
That was weaker than expected and comes just days ahead of the government's closely watched monthly jobs report.
On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department is slated to release the March jobs report ahead of the opening bell. Analysts expect the economy to have added 192,000 jobs last month, according to Briefing.com.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management's monthly report on growth in the service sector was also disappointing. The ISM Services index came in at 54.4 for March, marking the weakest pace of growth in seven months.
Prices on the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained, lowering yields to 1.83% from Tuesday’s 1.86%. Treasury prices yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices retreated $1.58 to $95.37 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices fell nine dollars to $1,566.90 U.S. an ounce.
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