Equities in Toronto fell on Tuesday, weighed down by losses in financial stocks, as diplomatic tensions with Russia weighed on the market sentiment.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index came off its lows of the morning, to within 5.19 points of breakeven, to greet noon at 15,293.37
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.03 cents at 77.77 cents U.S.
The United States and many of its allies, including Canada, are expelling more than 100 Russian diplomats in retaliation to a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that they blame on Moscow.
The financial sector, which accounts for more than one-third of the weight of the TSX, slipped, with shares of Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia trailing by more than 0.5% each.
Shares of Barrick Gold were down 23 cents, or 1.4%, to $16.18, and Goldcorp fell 14 cents to $17.88, pushing the materials sector lower as gold prices slipped amid a revival in risk appetite in global financial markets.
The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Sierra Wireless, which rose $2.21, or 10.9%, to $22.48, after Roth Capital raised its rating to "buy" from "neutral", while the biggest decliner was Eldorado Gold, down 5.5 cents, or 5%, to $1.045.
Among the most active Canadian stocks by volume were Aurora Cannabis, Canopy Growth Co and Bombardier B.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 6.31 points to 810.23
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly divided, with telecoms, industrials and utilities each up 0.6%
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by gold, down 1.8%, while health-care and materials tailed off 0.6% each.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, adding to strong gains seen in the previous session as investors assessed the possibility of a trade war.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average marched ahead 202.78 points to 24,405.38, with General Electric as the best-performing stock in the index.
The S&P 500 gained 11.88 points to 2,670.43, with telecommunications as the best-performing sector.
The NASDAQ composite Index recovered 2.79 points to 7,223.33
In the corporate space, Facebook traded 1.4% lower after Bank of America Merrill Lynch reduced its price target on the stock for the second time in five days. The cut comes as Facebook's fallout from the data scandal continues.
Last week, reports emerged alleging that Cambridge Analytica, an analytics company, had gathered data from 50 million Facebook profiles without users' permission. While Facebook has since come out to apologize and try to rectify the matter, concerns remain over data use.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note gained ground, lowering yields to 2.82% from Monday’s 2.85%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell 23 cents a barrel to $65.32 U.S.
Gold prices faded $12.40 to $1,342.60 U.S. an ounce.
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