The Toronto stock market registered a loss Wednesday morning with all eyes on the U.S. Federal Reserve and its mid-afternoon announcement on interest rates.
The S&P/TSX composite index slid 54.31 points to greet noon 14,569.94
The Canadian dollar was up 0.23 cents to 89.76 cents U.S.
On the TSX, the gold sector was the leading decliner as Barrick Gold, which posts earnings after the close, faded 35 cents to $14.75.
The metals and mining sector was down as December copper inched up a penny at $3.10 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources reported it had $159 million of adjusted profit in the third quarter, or 28 cents per share, down 37% from the third quarter of 2013 but three cents per share higher than analyst estimates.
Revenue was down nearly 11% to $2.25 billion with results impacted by lower prices for its steelmaking coal and its shares were up 74 cents or almost 4% to $18.58.
Elsewhere in the resource group, Sherritt International Inc. says it's cutting the size of its head office workforce by 25% and preparing to sell the building as part of a previously announced cost-cutting plan.
The Toronto-based company also says that the restructuring will reduce the overall salaried workforce by about 10%, without making cuts at a key nickel operation in Madagascar. The miner also said its continuing operations had a net loss of $51.3 million or 17 cents per share, down from a small profit a year earlier. Its shares were ahead six cents to $2.75.
The energy sector advanced while Suncor Energy was ahead 62 cents to $39.62 ahead of earnings coming out this evening.
The economic spotlight shone on two items today: wholesale inflation, in the form of the industrial product price index, eased 0.4% in September, mainly due to lower prices for energy and petroleum products.
Elsewhere, the raw materials price index gave back 1.8% in September, largely as a result of lower prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange remained positive 0.90 points to 788.92.
All but three of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower by noon, with gold dwindling 2.1% in value, materials down 1.3%, and real-estate sliding 0.9%.
The three gainers were energy, up 0.6%, utilities picking up 0.5%, and the metals and mining group inching up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday, a day after the S&P 500 rose to within 2% of its record, with the NASDAQ Composite hit by Facebook's decline, as Wall Street awaited a monetary-policy decision from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones Industrials added 12.17 points to 16,993.58
The S&P 500 dropped 2.48 points to 1,982.57. The NASDAQ index slid 23.80 points to 4,540.49.
Facebook shares slid as the social network projected slower revenue growth this quarter and said spending would increase in 2015; Hershey declined after the chocolate maker posted third-quarter earnings below estimates and cut its guidance for the year, and U.S. Steel surged after posting better-than-estimated quarterly results.
Of the 287 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported third-quarter earnings, 75.3% have beaten estimates, better than the 63% of companies that beat in a typical quarter, going back to 1994, according to Thomson Reuters.
Fed officials end a two-day policy meeting Wednesday with the release of a statement at 2 p.m. Eastern. The central bank is expected to announce an end to the bond purchases, known as quantitative easing, that helped fuel stock gains and increased the Fed's balance sheet to a record.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries dipped, raising yields to 2.32% from Tuesday’s 2.28%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $1.12 to $82.54 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices fell $6.50 to $1,222.90 U.S. an ounce.
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