Stocks remained negative on Wednesday in Toronto, with heavyweight financial stocks pulling back as global growth fears rose and energy shares falling with subdued oil prices.
The S&P/TSX Composite came off its low of the morning, charging to within 21.43 points of breakeven to greet noon at 14,198.14
The Canadian dollar subsided 0.07 cents to 76.96 cents U.S.
The financials group lost ground, with Toronto-Dominion Bank down 1.7% to $54.49 and Royal Bank of Canada off 1.1% to $76.09.
Insurers also fell, with Manulife Financial shedding 3% to $16.63 and Sun Life Financial down 1.9% to $40.70.
Pipeline operator Enbridge fell 1% to $54.27, Suncor Energy lost 1% to $36.35, and Canadian Natural Resources slipped 0.8% to $39.91.
Barrick Gold added 2.1% to $29.72, Goldcorp advanced 1.1% to $26.27, and Yamana Gold rose 2.7% to $7.60.
Centerra Gold declined 7.3 percent to $7.51 after agreeing to buy U.S.-based Thompson Creek Metals for around $1.1 billion to expand its operations in North America.
On the economic agenda, Statistics Canada reported that Canada's exports fell 0.7% to $41.1 billion in May, while imports eased 0.8% to $44.4 billion. As a result, Canada's merchandise trade deficit with the world in May was virtually unchanged from April at $3.3 billion.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange remained higher 4.14 points to 754.23
Seven of the 13 subgroups were lower by noon, with metals and mining off 1.2%, financials were down 0.9%, and information technology sliding 0.8%
The half-dozen gainers were led by gold, up 2%, health-care, up 1.6%, and utilities, ahead 0.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks scraped into positive territory Wednesday, helped by a reversal in oil prices and gains in health care stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrials regained 28.07 points to 17,868.69, with Home Depot, Merck and UnitedHealth having the greatest positive impact, while Boeing and DuPont weighed.
The S&P 500 forged ahead 4.23 points to 2,092.78, with health-care leading six sectors higher.
The NASDAQ Composite Index improved 25.7 points to 4,848.60, as shares of Facebook, Amazon.com, Apple and Alphabet climbed.
Economically speaking, the U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected in May to $41.1 billion from $37.4 billion the prior month.
Elsewhere, the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index came in at 56.5 for June versus 52.9 in May.
Earlier, Markit's U.S. services PMI showed marginal expansion at 51.4 in June, up fractionally from 51.3 in May.
The Federal Reserve meeting minutes are due later in the day. The non-farm payrolls report due Friday is the key data for the week.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury were lower, raising yields to 1.39% from Tuesday’s 1.38%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regained 50 cents a barrel to $47.10 U.S.
Gold prices hiked $8.60 to $1,367.30 U.S. an ounce.
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