Indices in Toronto fell on Friday, led by declines in energy stocks, with investors also shrugging off a strong jobs report as a mounting death toll from the coronavirus epidemic hurt sentiment.
The TSX Composite Index retreated 63.78 points by noon EST Friday to 17,693.71
The Canadian dollar lost 0.13 cents to 75.13 cents U.S.
The top percentage gainers on the TSX were CAE Inc , the world's largest civil aviation training company, up $1.37, or 3.4%., to $41.50,
Uranium miner Cameco Corp surrendered earlier gains and was down 10 cents by noon to $11.39. Their shares had risen after the company reported higher quarterly profit.
The biggest decliner on the main index was Aurora Cannabis, down 44 cents, or 16.3%, to $2.23, and on track to post its worst day since November, after the pot producer issued a bleak outlook as it struggled with high costs and a slow roll out of retail stores in Canada.
The second biggest decliner on the TSX was Silvercorp Metal, down $1.28, or 18.6%, to $5.60, after the company missed quarterly profit expectations.
In the economic docket, Statistics Canada reported employment increased by 35,000, or 0.2%, in January, all in full-time work. The unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 5.5%
Western University’s Ivey PMI jumped to 57.3 in January from 51.9 in the previous month and 54.7 in January 2019
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 3.52 points to pause for lunch Friday at 574.48.
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were negative, with health-care down 4.7%, materials swooned 1.8%, and gold was weaker 1.2%.
The three gainers were led by utilities, up 0.5%, real-estate better by 0.4%, and information technology, ahead 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Friday as worries over the coronavirus’ impact on the Chinese economy outweighed the release of stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data.
The Dow Jones Industrials plunged 194.23 points to 29,185.54
The S&P 500 handed over 7.57 points at 3,338.21.
The NASDAQ lost 11.7 points to 9,560.46.
Those losses put the major averages on pace to snap a four-day winning streak.
The S&P 500 is up more than 3% week to date, and is on pace for its best weekly performance since early June. The Dow is up 3.3% for the week while the NASDAQ has gained 4.1%.
Caterpillar and Goldman Sachs led the 30-stock index lower, Caterpillar falling 2.3% and Goldman 1.5%. Disney shares also fell 1.3% while Boeing dropped 1%. Energy, materials and health care dragged down the S&P 500 as each sector fell at least 0.6%.
Activision Blizzard and T-Mobile are among the companies that posted better-than-expected earnings. Shares of Activision rose more than 2% while T-Mobile traded 0.9% higher.
On the earnings front, more than 300 S&P 500 companies have posted calendar fourth-quarter earnings thus far, FactSet data shows. Of those companies, 71.3% have beaten analyst expectations.
The U.S. economy added 225,000 jobs in January. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a print of 158,000 jobs. Wages rose 3.1% on a year-over-year basis, also topping expectations.
China’s National Health Commission on Friday confirmed 31,131 cases of the deadly pneumonia-like virus in the country, with 636 deaths.
Prices for the 10-Year U.S. Treasury rose sharply, lowering yields to 1.59% from Thursday’s 1.64%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices backed off 19 cents to $50.76 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices hiked $1.30 to $1,571.30 U.S. an ounce.
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