Canada's main stock index dug a little deeper into negative territory Wednesday, as losses in real-estate outweighed gains in energy
The S&P/TSX Composite Index slumped 31.51 points to greet noon at 16,339.77
The Canadian dollar was up 0.31 cents to 76.19 cents U.S.
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Baytex Energy Corp, which jumped 10 cents, or 5%, to $2.12, and Kelt Exploration, which rose 20 cents, or 4.8%, to $4.33
Blackberry plummeted $1.02, or 9.4%, the most on the TSX, to $9.87, after reporting quarterly results.
The second biggest decliner was Barrick Gold, which fell 24 cents, or 1.1%,, to $20.84, as the world's number-two gold miner said some assumptions made by Acacia Mining about its mine plans were not supportable and needed adjustments.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 0.12 points at 579.11
All but one of the 12 Toronto subgroups had sunk by midday, mostly real-estate, down 1.5%, industrials, off 1%, and utilities 0.6% to the bad.
Only energy held out against the negative tide, gaining 2.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Wednesday as comments from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin lifted expectations of a potential trade deal between China and the U.S.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 61.05 points to pause for lunch at 26,609.27, as Intel and Apple outperformed.
The S&P 500 stayed in the green 5.69 points to 2,923.07, led by the energy and tech sectors.
The NASDAQ Composite charged ahead 54.03 points to 7,938.75
Tech shares were led by a 12% gain in Micron, which also also jolted other semiconductor stocks. Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia also rose more than 4%.
Micron was also told it could "lawfully resume" shipments to Chinese telecom giant Huawei. The stock also got a boost from better-than-expected quarterly results.
"We were about 90% of the way there (with a deal) and I think there’s a path to complete this," Mnuchin told reporters on Wednesday, without providing detail on what the final 10% of an agreement might entail.
He said he’s confident President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping can make progress in stalled trade talks at the forthcoming Group of 20 (G-20) meeting this weekend.
Bloomberg News also reported, that the U.S. was willing to suspend tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods as the two sides resume trade talks.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, raising yields to 2.03% from Tuesday’s 1.99%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices picked up $1.79 to $59.62 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices came to within 80 cents of breakeven to $1,417.90 U.S. an ounce.
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