Equities in Canada’s biggest centre gave back small gains in morning trade on Wednesday, retreating from its strongest level since June last year, as gold miners rose while Valeant Pharmaceutical International slipped back after a surge.
The S&P/TSX Composite faded 23.73 points to greet noon at 14,777.50.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.28 cents to 76.51 cents U.S.
The most influential movers on the Canadian index included two of the world's biggest gold miners, with Goldcorp up 3.2% to $24.51 and Barrick Gold adding 1% to $28.48.
Tahoe Resources advanced 7.2% to $21.94 after its adjusted earnings beat expectations and it said it expects to hit the top end of its silver production target.
Valeant stock slipped back 4.8% to $35.12. It had surged 25% on Tuesday after the drug maker unveiled a plan to sell assets to pay down debt.
Six weeks earlier, top Valeant investor and board member William Ackman attended a private shareholder dinner where similar plans were discussed
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange climbed 7.06 points to 830.56
All but three of the 13 subgroups were negative by lunch hour, with health-care sinking 1.3%, while real-estate lost 0.6%, and energy settled 0.5%.
The three gainers were gold, up 1.3%, materials, up 0.9%, and the metals and mining, up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Wednesday as investors digested falling oil prices and quarterly results from retail firms.
The Dow Jones Industrials retreated 28.66 points to 18,504.39, with ExxonMobil leading decliners and Wal-Mart the top advancer.
The S&P 500 dipped 4.98 points to 2,176.76, with health-care leading six sectors lower and consumer discretionary leading advancers.
The NASDAQ Composite lost 19.83 points to 5,205.65
Before the bell, Michael Kors posted quarterly results that beat expectations on both lines, but the stock was down slightly. Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren shares popped more than 10% after its earnings came in sharply above expectations.
Kohl's, Macy's and Nordstrom are scheduled to post results on Thursday
Oil futures seesawed Wednesday, with U.S. crude trading about 0.2% higher, after briefly falling more than 1%, after the Energy Information Administration's weekly inventories data release. The data showed U.S. commercial crude inventories rose by 1.1 million barrels to a total of 523.6 million last week, slightly more than expected.
Moreover, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) showed an increase to 5.624 million job openings in June.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury moved up, lowering yields to 1.52% from Tuesday’s 1.54%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped 79 cents a barrel to $41.98 U.S.
Gold prices improved five dollars to $1,351.70 U.S. an ounce.
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