Stocks in Toronto faded before the closing bell, on ailing health-care and tech issues
The S&P/TSX Composite Index surrendered moderate gains during the day and dipped 48.84 points to finish Wednesday at 16,231.25
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.3 at 74.87 cents U.S.
Health-care stocks took the brunt of negative sentiment, as Canopy Growth was $4.14, or 10.1%, to $36.74, after reporting fourth-quarter results. Elsewhere, Valeant Pharmaceuticals dropped 51 cents, or 1.6%, to $30.54.
Among tech stocks, Shopify was punished $11.92, or 5.8%, to $193.96, while Constellation Software settled $5.67 to $1,021.40.
In consumer discretionary stocks, Magna International doffed 56 cents to $80.77, while Canadian Tire slid 20 cents to $171.39.
A Suncor Energy spokeswoman reaffirmed production at Syncrude, one of Canada's largest oil sands facilities, is likely to remain offline at least through July.
Suncor gathered 12 cents to $53.27, while Encana gained 81 cents, or 4.8 %, to $17.81, and Precision Drilling rose nine cents, or 2.1%, to $4.46.
Among telecoms, Rogers Communications gained 31 cents to $62.87, while BCE added six cents to $53.98.
Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau says he wants North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations to resume as soon as possible, adding that while the Canadian economy was doing well, tariffs imposed by the United States on steel and aluminum were a problem.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faded 8.19 points to 736.90
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower on the day, with health-care sinking 4.3%, information technology, off 1.6%, and consumer discretionary stock dipping 0.8%.
The three gainers were energy, gushing 1.5%, telecoms, up 0.3%, and utilities, eking up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks closed lower on Wednesday, erasing sharp gains, as positive news on the trade front was not enough to fend off declines in tech and financials shares.
The Dow Jones Industrials finished negative 165.52 points at 24,117.59, with Intel among the worst-performing stocks in the index.
The Dow rose as much as 285.91 points earlier in the session as a crackdown on Chinese tech investments by the Trump administration was less restrictive than expected.
The S&P 500 gave up 23.43 points to 2,699.63, as tech fell 1.5%.
The NASDAQ got bruised 116.54 points, or 1.5%, to 7,445.08, as Amazon and Alphabet declined 1.8% and 1.4%, respectively. Declines in Facebook and Netflix also pushed the NASDAQ lower.
Financials gave back gains from earlier in the session, notching a record 13 straight days of losses. Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup all fell at least 1%.
General Electric shares gained 1.6% after Oppenheimer upgraded the stock to perform from underperform, citing its debt-reduction plan.
The government will rely on the newly strengthened Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to deal with concerns about foreign purchase of sensitive domestic technologies, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained, lowering yields to 2.83% from Tuesday’s 2.88%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices took on $1.87 to $72.40 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slipped $5.90 to $1,254.00 U.S. an ounce.
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