Stocks in Toronto fell Thursday including losses for energy, mining and financial stocks as U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hike speculation weighed on commodity prices.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index slid 50.43 points to 13,775.58
The Canadian dollar fell 0.51 cents to 76.23 cents U.S.
Sources say buyout firm Onex Corp has revived an auction for Carestream Health that could value it at more than $3 billion, including debt, and is exploring a breakup of the U.S. medical imaging company.
Onex shares fell 55 cents to $75.01.
Pacific Exploration & Production Corp said its board was in favor of a restructuring proposal submitted by Catalyst Capital Group, after comparing it with a bid by EIG Global Energy Partners.
Pacific shares sit at 64 cents.
CIBC cut the rating on Acadian Timber to underperformer from sector perform.
Acadian shares lost 24 cents, or 1.4%, to $16.51.
Raymond James cut the rating on Russel Metals to market perform from outperform.
Russel shares collapsed $1.72, or 7.2%, to $22.03.
Canaccord Genuity cut the rating on Touchstone Exploration to hold from speculative buy.
Touchstone shares were unchanged at 20 cents.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that wholesale sales declined for a second consecutive month in March, down 1.0% to $54.6 billion. Lower sales were recorded in five of seven sub-sectors, led by the motor vehicle and parts sub-sector and the miscellaneous sub-sector
What’s more, in March, 545,700 people received regular Employment Insurance benefits, fewer by 2,400, or 0.4%, from the month before. The number has changed very little since last fall.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 2.62 points to 671/63
All but three of the 13 TSX subgroups were lower in the first hour, with energy down 1.5%, while industrials and metals and mining sank 0.7%.
The three gainers were health-care, up 0.4%, consumer discretionary stocks, nicking up 0.1%, and information technology eking up 0.02%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded lower Thursday, amid declines in oil prices, after Wednesday's release of the Fed meeting minutes indicated a rate hike was possible as soon as June if the data improves.
The Dow Jones Industrials stumbled 152.2 points to 17,374.42, falling into the red for 2016. Goldman Sachs, 3M and Boeing contributed the most to declines in the index.
The S&P 500 lost 12.2 points to 2,035.43, with telecoms leading eight sectors lower and materials and consumer staples the only gainers.
The NASDAQ Composite faltered 41.85 points to 4,697.27
Shares of Wal-Mart traded about 9% higher after better-than-expected quarterly results.
In the day's economic news, weekly jobless claims declined to 278,000, after three weeks of increases. The May Philly Fed index showed minus 1.8.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained strength, lowering yields to 1.83% from Wednesday’s 1.85%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slid 95 cents a barrel to $47.24 U.S.
Gold prices dumped $11.94 to $1,246.56 U.S. an ounce.
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