Stocks in Canada’s largest centre straddled the flatline early Thursday morning, as precious metals miners gained on higher gold prices, to counteract losses for energy issues.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index doffed 4.15 points to begin Thursday at 15,623.78
The Canadian dollar regained 0.14 cents to 77.8 cents U.S.
Bombardier Inc. – the plane and train maker – has agreed to sell its Toronto aircraft assembly site to a pension fund as it strives to raise extra cash under a five-year recovery plan.
Crescent Point Energy reported a first-quarter loss as it sold Canadian crude at a bigger discount.
Canadian Natural Resources reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by higher oil sands production.
CIBC raised the target price on CGI Group to $83.00 from $80.00
Barclays raised the target price on Suncor Energy to $60.00 from $54.00
On the economic front, Statistics Canada said our country’s imports rose 6.0% to a record $51.7 billion in March. Exports also increased, up 3.7% to $47.6 billion.
As a result, said the agency, Canada's merchandise trade deficit with the world widened from $2.9 billion in February to a record $4.1 billion in March.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 0.35 points to 771.54
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher, with gold ahead 1.2%, health-care haler by 0.9%, and materials better by 0.8%.
The three laggards were energy and telecoms, each down 0.8%, and information technology, sliding 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks traded lower on Thursday as investors looked past solid quarterly results while trade and geopolitical worries mounted.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 180.97 points to 23,744.01, with Caterpillar as the worst-performing stock.
The S&P 500 dipped 16.83 points to 2,618.84, with health-care and financials lagging.
The NASDAQ retreated 32.42 points to 7,068.47
Tesla reported better-than-forecast quarterly results Wednesday after the close. However, the stock fell after CEO Elon Musk dismissed questions from analysts regarding gross margins and Model 3 production.
Meanwhile, Church & Dwight, Blue Apron and Express Scripts also posted results that beat the Street.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is leading a group of Trump administration officials to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and discuss trade between the two nations.
Shortly before the talks were set to take place in Beijing, the mood between the world's two largest economies worsened amid reports the U.S. administration is considering taking executive action to restrict some Chinese firms' ability to sell telecoms equipment.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note strengthened, lowering yields to 2.94% from Wednesday’s 2.98%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slipped 45 cents a barrel to $67.48 U.S.
Gold prices regained $10.20 to $1,315.80 U.S. an ounce.
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