Stocks in Toronto fell on Friday as renewed concerns about oversupply put pressure on oil prices, sending shares of energy producers lower.
The S&P/TSX composite index subtracted 50.39 points to begin Friday the 13th at 14,720.33
The Canadian dollar sifted off 0.51 cents to 78.28 cents U.S.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday that Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway have such huge market power that they cannot be allowed to dictate how Canada's grain shipment backlog is cleared.
Shares in CP dipped 67 cents to $236.53, while CN shares hesitated 26 cents to $86.00.
National Bank Financial cut the rating on Colabor Group to sector perform from outperform. Colabor shares dropped four cents to $1.77.
Canaccord Genuity raised the target price on Tricon Capital to $11.00 from $10.00 with a buy rating. Tricon shares eked up four cents to $10.22.
CIBC cut the rating on Empire Co. to sector perform from outperform. Empire shares faltered $2.34, or 2.6%, to $87.66.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that the number of jobs fell about a thousand in February, driving the unemployment rate up 0.2 percentage points to 6.8%, with more people looking for work.
In the 12 months to February, employment increased by 130,000, or 0.7%, with most of the growth in the second half of the period.
Harper also said Thursday that Canada's federal budget will show a deficit of just over $2 billion in the current fiscal year and will be balanced in the year starting April 1.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange was negative 2.52 points to 671.25
All but three of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower in the first hour of Friday’s trading, as metals and mining surrendered 1.9%, global base metals were off 1.5%, and energy slid 1.3%
The three gainers were in health-care, haler by 0.5%, gold, eking up 0.1%, and consumer discretionaries, pushing their way 0.02% higher.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded mostly lower on Friday as investors viewed consumer data amid renewed dollar strength and weaker oil prices.
The Dow Jones Industrials tailed off 93.06 points to 17,802.16, after Thursday’s sharp climb, with IBM the greatest laggard and JPMorgan Chase leading four blue-chips higher.
The S&P 500 lost 6.02 points to 2,059.93, with utilities leading all 10 sectors lower.
The NASDAQ index erased 1.25 points to 4,892.04
Dow Jones reports that prosecutors are interviewing people tied to investor Bill Ackman in a case involving potential manipulation of Herbalife's stock. Ackman has had a long-standing short position in Herbalife, saying the nutritional supplements maker is a pyramid scheme.
He told media outlets he has not heard from the FBI or the Justice Department, and that he's happy to answer any questions they may have for him.
Google is not planning to compete aggressively with soon-to-be-public GoDaddy in the internet domain space, according to a report in Friday's New York Post.
Pfizer's pain drug Lyrica did not meet goals in a study that examined its effectiveness in treating adolescents with fibromyalgia.
The U.S. dollar edged higher after trading lower on Thursday. The euro fell to near 12-year lows again.
The U.S. Producer Price index for February showed a decline of 0.5%, missing estimates of a 0.3% gain.
Consumer sentiment data showed a preliminary read of 91.2 in March versus 95.4 in February.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries lost strength, raising yields to 2.13% from Thursday’s 2.10%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices shrank 90 cents to $46.15 U.S.
Gold prices moved higher $4.40 to $1,156.30 U.S.
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