The Toronto stock market was lower Thursday as a partial U.S. government shutdown, now in its third day, showed no signs of ending and traders worried the U.S. was heading for a big economic shock later this month.
The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 131.86 points, or 1%, to greet noon Thursday at 12,707.14
The Canadian dollar recovered 0.12 cents to 96.86 cents U.S.
Techs led declined with BlackBerry down 23 cents to $8.04.
The industrials group was down as Canadian Pacific Railway fell $2.01 to $127.75.
Telecoms were also a major weight with BCE Inc. down 53 cents to $43.39.
The energy group was down as Talisman Energy lost 21 cents to $12.61.
December copper was down three cents to $3.29 U.S. a pound. The metals and mining sector turned down and First Quantum Minerals ticked 24 cents lower to $18.37.
The health care segment led advancers. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. was ahead $2.22 to $115.60 after it said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new Bausch + Lomb disposable contact lens sooner than expected. Bausch + Lomb was acquired by Valeant for about $8.7 billion U.S. in August.
The gold sector was up while Goldcorp Inc. rose 30 cents to $26.61.
In other corporate news, Mike Wilson will retire as CEO of fertilizer company Agrium Inc. at year-end and pass the reins to the fertilizer giant's chief operating officer.
Chuck Magro had a long career at petrochemical company Nova Chemicals before taking on various leadership roles at Calgary-based Agrium. Agrium shares improved by $1.05 to $89.34.
WestJet says it had a greater proportion of empty seats on its flights last month as increases in the airline's capacity outpaced its growth in passengers. The airline says its load factor in September was 76.6%, down from 79.1% a year ago and its shares declined 65 cents to $24.40.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange reversed gears and slid 1.89 points to 945.44
All 14 Toronto subgroups were in the red over noon hour, with metals and mining stocks down 2.1%, global base metals off 1.9%, and industrials slipped 1.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell again Thursday as Washington remains paralyzed and the nation approaches the deadline for raising the U.S. debt ceiling.
The Dow Jones Industrials fell 165.23 points, or 1.1%, to pause for noon at 14,967.90
The S&P 500 index dipped 21.56 points to 1,672.31. The NASDAQ plummeted 55.08 points to 3,759.94
Tesla's stock continued to fall Thursday morning after a fiery crash near Seattle, Wash., which sparked concerns about the safety of the car maker's Model S sedan.Tesla said the fire happened after the car crashed into a "large metallic object."
Shares of Angie's List tumbled 15% on concerns that the customer review site is hitting a rough patch. The company's chief technology officer left abruptly last week and now the website has drastically reduced its membership prices.
Other Internet stocks that have been red hot lately, such as Priceline, Yahoo,Netflix and Facebook, pulled back Thursday, too.
Herbalife shares are down more than 4%, even though hedge fund manager Bill Ackman disclosed he has recently restructured his short position on the nutritional supplement company to lessen his risk. The stock has more than doubled this year, making Ackman's bet a huge loser on paper.
United Technologies shares were down nearly 1% after the defense contractor announced that it would likely furlough 2,000 workers starting next week, thanks to the government shutdown. About 800,000 federal employees have already been furloughed.
Meetings at the White House between congressional leaders and President Obama have failed to produce a breakthrough. That's making investors jittery. The Dow has dropped for eight of the past 10 trading days and is close to slipping below the key psychological level of 15,000 for the first time in about a month.
Economically speaking, about 308,000 people filed initial claims for unemployment benefits last week, up 1,000 from the prior week, the government reported Thursday morning. The U.S. Department of Labor's contingency plan allows for the release of the weekly jobless claims report during a shutdown.
The overall initial claims figure remains near its lowest level since 2007 -- an encouraging sign that layoffs are back to pre-recession levels.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury strengthened, lowering yields to 2.59% from Wednesday’s 2.63%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices retreated 70 cents to $103.40 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dipped $3.50 at $1,317.20 U.S. an ounce.
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