Stocks in Canada’s biggest centre remained lower as Tuesday opened for business, as apprehension surrounded tomorrow’s announcement by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
The S&P/TSX composite index slipped 18.39 points to start trading at 15,325.69
The Canadian dollar gained 0.22 cents to 82.94 cents U.S.
Stocks in the metals area fell as Nevsun Resources gave back six cents, or 1.2%, to $4.80.
Real-estate issues, such as units of Dream Global REIT, fell eight cents, or 0.8%, to $10.27.
Financials were also weak as Industrial Alliance faltered 26 cents, or 0.6%, to $43.51.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange nicked ahead 1.47 points to 691.57
All but three of the 14 Toronto subgroups fell, as metals and mining gained 0.6%, real-estate slid 0.4%, and financials subsided 0.3%.
The three gainers were global base metals, up 1%, gold, ahead 0.6%, and health-care, up 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded mixed on Tuesday, as investors eyed strong Apple earnings and the beginning of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting
The Dow Jones Industrials slumped 38.74 points to open Tuesday at 17,999.23
The S&P 500 index backtracked 3.02 points to 2,105.90
The NASDAQ index dropped 12.26 points to 5,047.99.
Apple shares traded down more than 1%. Earlier, the stock briefly gained to touch a new all-time high above $133.60 U.S. a share as the tech giant carried over its acquired momentum from Monday's earnings report.
The company reported quarterly earnings per share of $2.33 U.S. on revenue of $56.08 billion U.S., both above consensus estimates. Apple also said it would expand its capital return program to $200 billion from $130 billion U.S.
Merck surged more than 5%, on track for its best day since January 2014, to lead gains in the Dow. The firm beat Wall Street's estimates after posting adjusted quarterly profits of 85 cent U.S. per share on revenue of $9.4 billion U.S, sending the stock up more than 4.5% in pre-market trading.
Analysts expected the company to report earnings per share of 75 cents on revenue of $9.1 billion U.S.
Reports from Twitter, Samsung Electronics, Kraft Foods, GoPro, Buffalo Wild Wings are all due after the bell.
The Fed meeting gets underway Tuesday, with the conclusion and post-meeting statement due Wednesday. A wave of disappointing domestic data since the previous FOMC meeting has spurred economists to downgrade their outlooks for the U.S. economy in 2015.
Investors will be eyeing any comments from the Fed for hints as to when it might hike interest rates.
To be sure, with no press conference on Wednesday, analysts do not expect major news out of the U.S. central bank this week.
The Conference Board consumer confidence survey results for April was 95.2, below expectations of a rise.
The S&P/Case-Shiller's 20-City Composite gained 5% year-over-year in February, compared with a 4.5% increase in January.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries stepped back, raising yields to 1.95% from Monday’s 1.93%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell two cents to $56.97 U.S.
Gold prices gained $1.70 to $1,204.90 U.S.
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