Equities in Canada’s biggest market opened lower on Thursday, dragged down by the energy sector tracking oil prices after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia agreed to ease supply curbs from August.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index slumped 69.15 points to kick off Thursday at 15,994.18.
The Canadian dollar leaned lower 0.09 cents at 73.94 cents U.S.
OPEC and its allies will reduce their production cuts to 7.7 million barrels per day through December from the 9.7 million bpd in place since May.
The Bank of Canada said Wednesday Canada's economic activity will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2022 and interest rates will remain low for at least two years, as the central bank again held its key overnight rate steady.
Canada's efforts to flatten the curve of coronavirus cases have put the country on the cusp of zero deaths from COVID-19 for the first time since March, but officials see worrying signs of a new spike as provinces lift restrictions.
Scotiabank raised the target price on Savaria to $16.00 from $14.50. Savaria shares gained 68 cents, or 5.5%, to $13.04.
CIBC raises target price on Kinaxis Inc. to $230.00 from $205.00. Kinaxis shares dropped 57 cents to $190.50.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported foreign investors acquired $22.4 billion of Canadian securities in May, following a record investment of $49.0 billion in April. Meanwhile, Canadian investors added $13.4 billion of foreign securities to their holdings as investment in equities accelerated.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 2.65 points to begin Thursday at 664.74.
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower in the first hour, as health-care shed 2.9%, energy sputtered 1.6%, and information technology dipped 0.9%.
Only communications held out against the negative tide, picking up 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Thursday as investors pored through mixed U.S. economic data and the latest corporate earnings reports.
The Dow Jones Industrials handed back 84.15 points to open at 26,785.95. The 30-stock index had racked up an impressive streak of four straight positive sessions this week.
The S&P 500 lost 17.98 points to 3,208.55.
The NASDAQ made its way into the positive ranks, 61.92 points, to 10,550.49.
South of the border, the corporate earnings season continued and Bank of America reported better-than-expected earnings for the previous quarter.
However, the stock fell more than 3% as the company set aside $4 billion for coronavirus-related losses. Dow member Johnson & Johnson was flat as its full-year guidance dampened the optimism around its quarterly earnings beat.
Morgan Stanley shares rose 0.3% after the company’s quarterly earnings easily beat analyst expectations on the back of strong trading revenues. Netflix is set to report earnings after the bell.
The weekly jobless claims number came in slightly worst than expected. The U.S. Labor Department said a total of 1.30 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, compared to Dow Jones estimates of 1.25 million first-time filers.
However, retail sales jumped 7.5% in June, topping expectations of a 5.2% increase per Dow Jones. This reading came after May’s 17.7% surge, which blew past estimates and was the largest reading on record.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury were higher, weighing yields to 0.62% from Wednesday’s 0.63%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices sank 43 cents to $40.77 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dulled $6.40 to $1,807.40 U.S. an ounce.
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