Canada's main stock index fell sharply shortly after the open on Tuesday, as energy stocks, battered by a sharp fall in crude prices following China's unexpected devaluation of the yuan, lead the market lower.
The S&P/TSX composite index opened Tuesday having collapsed 154.26 points, or 1.1%, to 14,312.13.
The Canadian dollar subtracted 0.59 cents to 76.31 cents U.S.
CIBC cut the target price on Kelt Exploration to $9.50 from $11.00 as the company reported second quarter results that were in line on production, but light on cash flow and the lower guidance for 2015.
Kelt shares lost 45 cents, or 6.7%, to $6.29.
The earnings lineup consists in part of AGT Food and Ingredients, a company expecting Q2 earnings of 35 cents per share
Shares in AGT tacked on 28 cents to $30.34.
Alexco Resource expects a Q2 loss of three cents per share. Alexco shares nicked forward one cent to 44 cents.
Alterra Power is expecting Q2 earnings of a penny per share. Alterra shares gathered 3.5 cents, or 7.4%, to 51 cents.
Cara Operations is expecting Q2 earnings of 21 cents per share. Cara shares muscled ahead 61 cents, or 1.8%, to $34.49.
On the economic front, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported that the seasonally-adjusted annualized rate of housing starts fell to 193,032 in July from a downwardly-revised 202,338 units in June. Forecasters had expected 195,000 starts.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture backtracked 3.38 points to 579.55.
All 14 TSX subgroups lost ground in the first hour, with global base metals falling 5.2%, metals and mining down 4.9%, and energy doffing 2.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded lower on Tuesday after an unexpected move overnight by the People's Bank of China to depreciate the yuan by nearly 2%.
The Dow Jones industrial average gave back 157.24 points to open Tuesday at 17,457.93, with Caterpillar plunging more than 2 percent as the greatest laggard. The index snapped a seven-day losing streak on Monday with a 241-point gain.
The S&P 500 subsided 15.47 points to 2,088.71.
The NASDAQ index lost 24.30 points to 5,077.50
Investors also watched Google, which unexpectedly announced after the close Monday that it will become part of a new publicly traded entity called Alphabet. Shares will still trade under the tickers GOOGL and GOOG. Class A shares jumped more than 5% in morning trade.
Before the opening bell, Towers Watson reported quarterly results that beat expectations on both the top and bottom line.
In other earnings news, Shake Shack posted results after the close Monday that beat on both the top and bottom line. The restaurant chain also raised its full-year guidance.
Kraft Heinz reported a decline in sales at both its Kraft and Heinz divisions. Combined results for the recently merged firm were not reported.
Computer Sciences, Symantec, Cree and Cyber Ark Software will report after the bell.
On the data front, preliminary second quarter productivity was up at an annual rate of 1.3%, while unit labour costs were up 0.5%.
Wholesale sales rose 0.1% in June, the weakest since March of this year, while inventories topped expectations with a gain of 0.9%.
May's figure was revised lower to 0.6% from 0.8%.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries gained ground, lowering yields to 2.15% from Monday’s 2.23%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slipped $1.55 a barrel to $43.41 U.S.
Gold prices added $3.50 to $1,107.60 U.S. an ounce.
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