The Toronto stock market was negative Monday as economic worries pushed commodity prices lower despite good news from the G20 Summit meeting that will see countries reduce their deficits.
The S&P TSX Composite Index backpedaled 100.85 points to end the day at 11,607.
The TSX was depressed by the commodities sectors as the August crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange declined.
Oil had rallied strongly on Friday on expectations tropical storm Alex could disrupt oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. But by Monday morning, those worries had eased.
Also, the storm will likely strike well away from the area where BP is trying to stop a massive oil leak, said the U.S. National Hurricane Centre in Miami.
The energy sector was down with Canadian Natural Resources down 53 cents to $36.18 and Suncor Energy shed 28 cents to $32.98
A stronger U.S. dollar also put downward pressure on commodity prices and the base metals sector shed strength as the July copper contract on the Nymex moved down three cents at $3.06 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources fell $1.37 to $33.65 while Lundin Mining dropped 16 cents to $3.31.
The gold sector weakened, as Goldcorp Inc. lost 29 cents to $46.81. Kinross Gold faded 35 cents to $18.66.
Losses in the financial sector also increased with Bank of Montreal down 59 cents to $59.50 and Sun Life Financial lost 47 cents to $29.01.
TransAlta Corporation stepped back 12 cents to $20.33 after it announced that pipeline operator Enbridge Inc. plans to help develop Canada’s first fully integrated carbon capture and storage project at the Alberta power producer’s coal-fired plant near Edmonton.
It says that the development involves retro-fitting Keephills 3, a coal-fired plant west of Edmonton that’s jointly owned by the Calgary company and its partner Capital Power Corp. Enbridge shares rose 45 cents to $49.51.
Cliffs Natural Resources has raised its offer for Spider Resources Inc. to 19 cents, putting pressure on KWG Resources Inc., which matched a previous bid. KWG has until midnight July 6 to match the Ohio-based mining company’s offer. KWG shares were unchanged at 12 cents while Spider shares surged 2.5 cents to 18.5 cents on heavy volume of 21.4 million shares.
The Canadian dollar was up $0.06 at 96.60 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but three of the 14 TSX subgroups ended the day lower. Metals and mining weighed most heavily on the TSX, losing 2.4%, followed by global base metals stocks, off 2.2%, and energy, down 1.6%.
The three gainers were information technology, ahead 0.5%, health-care stocks, up 0.4% and utilities, 0.3% to the good.
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 7.41 points to 1,451.31 while the Nasdaq Canada index regained 2.52 points to 629.79
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks seesawed Monday as investors remained nervous about the economy despite a pledge from world leaders to cut deficits and a report that showed personal spending increased slightly.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell back into negative territory by 5.29 points to 10,138.52.
The S&P 500 index doffed 2.19 points to 1,074.57. The Nasdaq composite index moved 2.83 points lower to 2,220.65.
Stocks have been volatile in recent weeks due to a spate of weak economic reports and ongoing concerns about the European debt crisis. The market closed mixed Friday, but the three major indexes were still lower for the week despite a rebound in the financial sector.
Investors were in a holding pattern Monday ahead of top-tier economic data due later this week, including reports on manufacturing and the government's monthly jobs report
Bank stocks were mostly lower as investors continued to digest the Wall Street reform bill Congress finalized last week. Lawmakers are expected to vote on the sweeping overhaul this week and send the bill to President Obama in July.
Stocks in the consumer sector were among the best performers after a report on consumer spending came in slightly better than expected. Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart and Procter and Gamble all posted gains.
Leaders of the world's most important economies agreed to ambitious targets for getting deficits under control, pledging to cut them in half by 2013, according to a statement made following the G-20 summit this weekend in Toronto.
But the leaders acknowledged that progress on deficit reduction will take more time for some countries, and included a special provision for Japan, which is heavily reliant on external borrowing.
Tobacco companies Altria and Philip Morris rose after the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal over the government's ability to collect $280 billion U.S. from the industry for alleged fraud in its marketing.
The Supreme Court also ruled unconstitutional a long-standing ban on handguns in Chicago. Smith & Wesson Holding Corp jumped 3.4%.
Noble announced plans to buy FDR Holdings, an independent drilling company, in a cash transaction that values Frontier at $2.16 billion U.S. Shares of Noble rose 3.4%.
Shares of BP were up 1.3% after the oil company said it has spent $2.65 billion U.S. on costs related to the spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Economically speaking, before the open, the Commerce Department reported that personal income rose 0.4% in May, while personal spending edged up 0.2%.
The government was expected to report that personal income rose 0.5% in May after climbing 0.4% in April, according to a consensus estimate from Briefing.com.
Personal spending was expected to have risen 0.1% from a flat reading in April.
Treasury prices gained, lowering the 10-year note's yield to 3.03% from Friday’s 3.11%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil was down 86 cents to $78.00 U.S.
Gold prices slumped $16 to $1,240 U.S. an ounce.
Related Stories
