Stocks in Canada fell triple digits Friday midday, dragged down by a fall in BlackBerry Ltd shares on disappointing earnings and a retreat in oil prices that weighed on energy companies.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index came off its lows of the morning, but remained negative 100.22 points to move into noon hour at 13,394.14.
The Canadian dollar moved to within 0.18 cents of breakeven to 76.71cents U.S.
Canadian Natural Resources declined $1.45, or 4.1% to $33.68, as oil got hammered by a stronger U.S. dollar and doubts about the prospect of a deal to freeze output.
Among financials, Bank of Nova Scotia dropped $1.05, or 1.7%, to $62.42, and Royal Bank of Canada picked up a penny to $74.84.
BlackBerry tumbled 71 cents, or 6.7%, to $9.83 after the company reported a larger-than-expected slide in fourth-quarter revenue amid weak hardware sales.
RBC manufacturing PMI data rose to 51.5 in March, from 49.4 in February, its highest level since the end of 2014.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange skidded 3.3 points to 577.78
All but two of the 13 TSX subgroups were negative at noon, as energy fumbled 2.7%, gold sank 1.7%, and materials were off 1.4%.
The two gainers proved to be health-care, up 2.2%, and information technology, eking 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Equities in the U.S. were mostly higher Friday after some encouraging domestic data and mostly shaking off pressure from declines in oil prices and overseas stocks on disappointing Japanese data.
The Dow Jones Industrials strengthened 39.83 points to 17,688.86, with Chevron the greatest decliner. Goldman Sachs was the top gainer in late-morning trade.
The S&P 500 fell 11.55 points to 2,061.29,with health-care leading advancers in late-morning trade.
The NASDAQ index gathered 19.89 points to 4,888.74, with Apple nearly 1% higher.
The U.S. economy produced 215,000 jobs in March, with the unemployment rate edging up to 5% and average hourly earnings rising seven cents, according to Reuters. The labour force participation rate rose to 63%, its highest level since March 2014.
In other economic news, February construction spending declined 0.5%. The final University of Michigan consumer sentiment read for March was 91.0. Earlier, the March U.S. Markit manufacturing PMI came in at 51.5.
ISM manufacturing came in at 51.8 in March, topping expectations and up from February's 49.5 print.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury were higher, lowering yields to 1.77% from Thursday’s 1.78%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices retreated $1.34 a barrel to $37.00 U.S.
Gold prices shed $19.30 to $1,213.45 U.S. an ounce.
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