Falling mining stocks helped push the Toronto stock market sharply lower mid-afternoon Monday as base metal stocks fell amid data showing continued contraction of China's manufacturing sector and slowing expansion in the United States.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed Monday down 57.21 points at 14,278.55
The Canadian dollar gained 0.28 cents at 89.34 cents U.S.
The gold sector took a hit as April bullion shed strength, as any threat of military retaliation follow Russia’s invasion of Crimea quickly evaporated while sanctions have been aimed at specific individuals, not the main Russian economy.
Barrick Gold slid a dollar to $20.76, while Kinross Gold fell 28 cents to $5.10.
The metals and mining sector continued to move down while May copper was unchanged at $2.95 U.S. a pound. Worries about China have pushed the sector down more than 6% this month, making that group the leading loser, while copper prices have fallen more than 7.5%.
Teck Resources docked 26 cents to $23.42.
The energy sector made slight gains as Imperial Oil improved in price 16 cents to $51.18 while Suncor surged 52 cents to $36.86
The tech sector was little changed but BlackBerry was up 31 cents to $10.50 ahead of earnings from the smartphone maker coming out on Friday.
On average, investors expect the smartphone maker to post revenue of $1.1 billion and a net loss of about 57 cents a share. That is down sharply from a year ago when BlackBerry posted revenue of $2.2 billion and earnings per share of 18 cents.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 15.58 points to 1,019.18
Nine of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower, weighed mostly by a 4% drop in gold stocks, materials fading 2.6%, and health-care stocks doffed 1.6%.
The five gainers were led by utilities, up 0.9%, information technology stocks, up 0.4%, and financials, up 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
It was a tough start to the week for technology stocks, as the tech-heavy NASDAQ index got bruised Monday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average made its way above its lows of the afternoon, but still faded 26.08 points to 16,276.69. The S&P 500 index gave back 9.08 points to 1,857.44. The NASDAQ dumped 50.40 to 4,226.39
Netflix was under the most pressure Monday, losing nearly 7%.
It appears that Netflix investors are worried about the possibility of competition from Apple after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company is exploring a partnership with Comcast for an Apple-branded TV service. Shares of Apple were actually one of the few big tech stocks moving higher.
But Netflix wasn't the only momentum tech taking a beating. Some other well-known Internet stocks, including Yahoo!, Linkedin, Twitter, Priceline and Facebook, also suffered.
Shares of Nu Skin surged after the company said it was fined around $700,000 U.S. for its business practices in China. The beauty products marketer had previously disclosed that it was being investigated by Chinese regulators, but the relatively small penalty seems to be a relief to investors who had feared a more major regulatory blow.
Herbalife, the nutritional supplements distributor that uses a similar multi-level marketing sales model as Nu Skin, also rallied on the news. Herbalife revealed earlier this month that it is being probed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
The company has been in the crosshairs of hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who has publicly called it a pyramid scheme and unveiled a large bet that its stock price would fall. He also recently disclosed what he says are more shady tactics by the company in China.
Lions Gate shares were up after the studio's film "Divergent" had a strong opening at the box office. Many analysts expected a weaker showing for the movie.
King Digital Entertainment, the company behind the popular Candy Crush Saga online game is one of 14 companies currently scheduled to go public this week.
The IPO mania is part of a global trend, as more and more companies seek to go public in order to take advantage of increased demand for stocks.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries strengthened, dropping yields to 2.73% from Friday’s 2.75%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices sagged 10 cents to $99.36 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices plunged $25.50 to $1,310.50 U.S. an ounce.
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