Equities in Toronto fell for a third straight session on Thursday – though off its lows of the day -- dragged by a decline in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce after the lender reported quarterly results.
The S&P/TSX composite index slipped 22.01 points to finish at 14,588.95.
After a strong start to the year, the TSX is down for the month.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.35 cents to 92.28 cents U.S.
CIBC shares dropped 1.4% to $97.68, after the bank's second-quarter profit fell by nearly two-thirds, hurt by $543 million in charges related to its Caribbean banking unit
Elsewhere among financials, Royal Bank of Canada lost 0.5% to $74.76, while Bank of Montreal gave back 0.4% to $76.29
Gold-mining shares were lower, and the price of bullion dropped to a 16-week low. Goldcorp lost 0.4% to $25.06.
Shares of energy companies declined despite oil prices rising. Enbridge shed 1.2% to $51.22, and Suncor Energy gave back 0.4% to $41.71.
Economically speaking, Statistics Canada reported this morning that Canada’s current account deficit narrowed to $12.39 billion in the first quarter of 2014 thanks to a stronger performance by exporters. Market analysts had expected a shortfall of $13.1 billion.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 2.06 points to 981.52.
Eight of the 14 Toronto subgroups were negative Thursday, as telecoms slid 1.1%, metals and mining hesitated 0.7%, financials dipped 0.5%.
There were six gainers, led by health-care and information technology, each up 0.7%, and global base metals, up 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
Despite a weaker-than-expected report on economic growth, the S&P 500 rose to another high Thursday as investors bet the economy is on the mend.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average marched ahead 65.56 points to close at 16,698.74
The S&P 500 gained 10.25 points to 1,920.03, and the NASDAQ composite index moved ahead 22.87 points to 4,247.95
All three of the major indexes are positive for the month and year. The tech stock heavy NASDAQ is on track to end May up 3%.
Shares of Hillshire Brands surged more than 15% after Tyson Foods unveiled a $6.8-billion U.S. buyout offer, sending Tyson shares up more than 6%. The move comes days after Pilgrim's Pride launched a bid to buy Hillshire for $6.4 billion U.S.
The packaged food companies are hungry to form one of the world's largest producers of meat, chicken and pork products.
Apple shares were modestly higher after the technology giant announced that it was buying headphone-maker Beats for $3 billion U.S. News of the deal had been circulating for nearly three weeks.
Shares of BlackBerry gained more than 7% as investors welcomed comments from CEO John Chen at Recode's Code Conference. He said the company has an 80% chance of coming back (higher than his previous 50-50 estimate) and reiterated that BlackBerry isn't dead yet.
Costco issued its latest quarterly results, showing that sales increased but profit came in slightly below expectations. The stock is up modestly.
Abercrombie & Fitch shares surged more almost 6%, even though the clothing retailer reported a quarterly loss.
Retailers Guess and Pacific Sunwear will report after the close. Despite a 27% drop in share price yesterday, the stock of shoe store DSW stabilized today.
On the economic ledger, the U.S. economy shrank at a 1% annual rate in the first three months of the year, according to revised data released Thursday. That was much worse than the initial 0.1% reading, and reflected a sharp drop in inventory spending by businesses.
But economists downplayed the report, saying more recent indicators suggest the economy has improved in the current quarter. For example, the latest report on weekly jobless claims showed a sharp drop in the number of people filing for unemployment benefits.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries lost ground, raising yields to 2.45% from Wednesday’s 2.44%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions
Oil prices acquired 86 cents to $103.58 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices shed $4.20 to $1,255.10 U.S. an ounce.
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