Equities in Canada suffered losses at the open on Thursday after three straight days of gains, as investors adopted a wait-and-watch approach following a mixed corporate earnings reports.
The S&P/TSX Composite dropped 80.6 points to begin Thursday at 16,531.24
The Canadian dollar drooped 0.05 cents to 76.06 cents U.S.
Teck Resources reported a quarterly profit slightly below analyst estimates, hurt by lower copper and zinc prices.
Teck shares were unchanged at $30.03 first thing in the morning.
Cenovus Energy missed quarterly profit estimates as the production cuts ordered by Alberta's provincial government in Canada hit output and higher Canadian crude prices hurt refining margins.
Cenovus shares shed 27 cents, or 2.2%, to $12.02.
Suncor Energy, Canada's second-largest oil and gas producer, on Wednesday reported a 5% rise in second-quarter operating profit and higher upstream production.
Suncor shares dipped a dime to $40.00.
The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said it had found provisionally that sellers of antibiotic Nitrofurantoin broke competition law by "arranging to carve up the market between them".
The watchdog said from 2014 to at least October 2017, two suppliers, Advanz Pharma and Morningside, and a wholesaler, Alliance Healthcare, entered into arrangements under which Alliance would buy equal volumes of the drug from each of the suppliers so that they would not compete.
Advanz shares retreated 19 cents, or 1%, to $19.90.
Canaccord Genuity cut the price target on Celestica to $7.00 from $8.00. Celestica plummeted 50 cents, or 5.4%, to $8.84.
CIBC raised the price target on Loblaw Companies to $77.00 from $76.00. Loblaw shares gave back 44 cents to $65.97.
Credit Suisse cut the price target on Lundin Mining to $8.25 from $9.00. Lundin shares lost 25 cents, or 3.7%, to $6.50.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $1,031 in May, up 1.1% from April.
The agency added earnings were up 3.4%, compared with 12 months earlier.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 1.64 points to 594.79
All 12 Toronto subgroups plunged in the first hour, as gold scaled back 1.6%, materials dipped 1.1%, and energy lost 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Thursday as Wall Street digested the latest batch of corporate earnings results along with comments from the top European Central Bank official.
The Dow Jones Industrials fell 100.19 to 27,169.78,
The S&P 500 dropped 10.6 points from Wednesday’s all-time high to 3,008.96
The NASDAQ lost touch with its all-time high as well, losing 58.06 points to 8,263.44
Ford shares slid 6% after its earnings fell short of estimates and its 2019 guidance disappointed investors. Boeing shares were battered again after reporting in the previous session a massive quarterly loss. Boeing dropped more than 3.5% after sliding 3.1% in Wednesday.
Facebook’s second-quarter earnings and revenue beat analyst expectations. The social media giant’s average revenue per user, a key metric for the company — came in at $7.05, well above a FactSet estimate of $6.87. The stock initially popped more than 1% before rolling over to trade 1.4% lower.
Shares of 3M, however, climbed 2.7% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the previous quarter. CEO Mike Roman said the company cost-management efforts and improved cash flow contributed to the strong quarter.
About a third of S&P 500 companies have reported second-quarter earnings so far. Of those companies, 75% have posted a better-than-forecast profit. Alphabet, Amazon, Intel, Starbucks and Mattel are all scheduled to report after the close Thursday.
Wall Street also pored through comments from ECB President Mario Draghi ahead of a key Federal Reserve meeting next week.
Draghi said that there was not a significant risk of a recession in the region, something traders took to mean that proposed stimulus would not be as deep as expected. U.S. stock futures fell on the remarks while the euro ripped higher.
The Fed is scheduled to hold a monetary policy meeting July 30-31 in which a rate cut of at least 25 basis points is expected.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury demurred, lifting yields to 2.09% from Wednesday’s 2.05%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices took on 53 cents to $56.41 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices surrendered $6.40 to $1,417.20 U.S. an ounce.
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