Canada's main stock index slipped on Thursday, weighed by the energy sector as oil prices fell after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers including Russia agreed to ease supply curbs from August.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index came off its lows of the morning, but remained negative 23.45 points reach midday at 16,039.88.
The Canadian dollar was in the red 0.15 cents at 73.88 cents U.S.
Air Canada fell 82 cents, or 4.5%, the most on the TSX, to $17.38 followed by Bausch Health Companies, down 92 cents, or 3.7%, to $24.30
Jamieson Wellness acquired a penny to $36.18, while Corus Entertainment shares gave up gains and were unchanged by noon to $2.57.
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.
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 3.95 points to pause for lunch at 663.44.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower by noon hour EDT. Health-care got bruised 2.1%, while information technology faltered 1.7%, and gold swooned 1.4%.
The five gainers were led by financials, richer by 0.6%, communications, up 0.5%, and energy, eking ahead 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Thursday, led by tech shares, as investors pored over the latest corporate earnings reports and mixed U.S. economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrials skidded 125.16 points to 26,745.04. The 30-stock index had racked up an impressive streak of four straight positive sessions this week.
The S&P 500 lost 23.09 points to 3,203.42.
The NASDAQ shook off earlier gains and had lost 154.21 points, or 1.5%, to 10,396.28.
Shares of Amazon and Microsoft each declined by at least 2%. Facebook, Alphabet and Netflix — which is set to report earnings after the bell — all dropped more than 1%. Apple dipped 1.3%. This has been the best-performing group in the stock market this year as investors bet their business models could withstand the coronavirus economic slowdown.
The corporate earnings season began this week and continued with Bank of America reporting 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 dipped 0.4% as its full-year guidance dampened the optimism around its quarterly earnings beat. Morgan Stanley popped 2.1% after the company’s quarterly earnings easily beat analyst expectations on the back of strong trading revenues.
The weekly jobless claims number came in slightly worse 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 0.61% from Wednesday’s 0.63%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices sank 23 cents to $40.97 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dulled $6.20 to $1,807.50 U.S. an ounce.
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