Equities in Canada’s largest centre slipped at the open on Thursday, weighed by losses among gold miners while financial stocks broadly gained after the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday hiked rates and struck a hawkish note on further increases.
The S&P/TSX Composite dropped 2.6 points to open Thursday at 15,194.58
The Canadian dollar dropped 1.42 cents to 74.7 cents U.S.
Statoil has agreed to sell its Canadian oil sands assets to Athabasca Oil in a deal worth up to $832 million. The transaction covers the 24,000-barrel-per-day Leismer oil sands plant in northern Alberta, the undeveloped Corner oil sands project and a number of midstream contracts associated with Leismer production.
Athabasca shares climbed 28 cents, or 19.7%, to $1.70.
Bombardier Inc said on Wednesday growth in the rail business and the ramp up of the C Series aircraft program should help boost full-year consolidated revenue in 2017 by a low single digit percentage. For 2017, the company is targeting consolidated earnings before interest and taxes before special items in the range of $530 million to $630 million.
Bombardier shares moved up seven cents, or 3.7%, to $1.98.
Canadian Natural Resources said that it expected production to rise by 6% and set its 2017 capital budget at $3.89 billion, a slight increase from last year.
Natural Resources shares added nine cents to $44.86.
Canaccord Genuity cut the target price on Merus Labs International to $3.00 from $3.50, to reflect the company’s disappointing guidance for next year.
Merus shares faded seven cents, or 6.4%, to $1.03.
Morgan Stanley cut the rating on Valeant Pharmaceuticals International to equal-weight from overweight, to reflect lack of expected business stabilization and material divestitures.
Valeant shares fell a dollar each, or 5.3%, to $17.79.
RBC raised the target price on Vermilion Energy to $56.00 from $53.00, considering the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ agreement to cut output levels to push prices higher.
Vermilion shares let go of 66 cents, or 1.2%, to $56.91.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported manufacturing sales tailed off 0.8% to $51.0 billion in October, following two consecutive monthly gains. The agency attributes the largest decreases to the primary metal, petroleum and coal product, and machinery industries
The Canadian Real Estate Association reported that national home sales fell 5.3% from October to November. Actual (not seasonally-adjusted) activity remained 1.6% above levels in November 2015.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eased 5.53 points to 736
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly divided between gainers and losers, as industrials grew 0.9%, while financials and information technology issues each tacked on 0.7%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by gold, down 2.3%, materials, sinking 1.5%, and health-care, off 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rose on Thursday as a post-election rally resumed, while investors digested a slew of economic data and the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrials regained 100.59 points to 19,893.12, with Goldman Sachs contributing the most gains.
The S&P 500 gained 12.5 points to 2,265.78, with financials rising more than 1.5% to lead advancers.
The NASDAQ composite index restored 28.51 points to 5,465.18
In economic news, the U.S. Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% in November, in line with expectations. Weekly jobless claims, meanwhile, came in at 254,000. The Philadelphia Fed business index rose 21.5 in December, versus a November read of 7.6, while the Empire State manufacturing index rose to 9.0 in December from 1.5 in November.
Investors also digested manufacturing data from IHS Markit, with the December manufacturing PMI index coming in at 54.2, marginally above November's 54.1. A number above 50 indicates expansion within a sector.
The NAHB homebuilder sentiment index rose seven points to 70, easily beating expectations.
Treasury prices for the 10-year note moved lower, raising yields to 2.59% from Wednesday’s 2.57%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell 67 cents to $50.37 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices fell $34.50 to $1,122.20 U.S. an ounce.
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