Markets Flat as Financials Drag

Equity markets in Toronto inched lower at the open on Tuesday, weighed by weakness in the materials sector and dismal earnings from Teck Resources.

The TSX nosed ahead 8.21 points to begin Tuesday at 16,087.76.

The Canadian dollar gained 0.2 cents at 75.91 cents U.S.

For its part, Teck stumbled out of the game 96 cents, or 5.5%, to $16.64.

CIBC initiated coverage on Bird Construction with an outperform rating. Bird shares eked up two cents to $6.43.

RBC raised the target price on Canadian Tire Corp to $173 from $168. Canadian Tire shares acquired 33 cents to $152.93.

National Bank of Canada raised the target price on Absolute Software to $18.00 from $17.00. Absolute shares gained 27 cents, or 1.7%, to $16.06.

ON BAYSTREET

The TSX Venture Exchange edged up 3.11 points, to kick off Tuesday at 704.39.

Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups turned positive, as health-care and real-estate each climbed 1.1%, while energy gushed 1%.

The four laggards were weighed most by financials, poorer by 0.7%, communications, sliding 0.3%, and gold, down 0.1%.

ON WALLSTREET

Stocks opened little changed on Tuesday as Wall Street attempted to rebound from a massive selloff a day earlier while traders pored over news on dealmaking, earnings and the coronavirus.

The Dow Jones Industrials eked higher 5.56 points to 27,690.94, after Monday’s 650-point loss, its biggest one-day drop since Sept. 3.

The S&P 500 restored 5.47 points to 3,406.44.

The NASDAQ recovered 60.38 points to 11,419.32.

AMD said it was buying rival Xilinx in a $35-billion all-stock deal in a push for the data centre market. Xilinx led chip stocks higher, gaining 12.3%. AMD shares dipped 1.7%.

With less than a week of trading left in October, the Dow is down slightly for the month and the S&P 500 has added 1.1%, and NASDAQ is up 1.7%.

A slew of large-cap companies reported quarterly earnings on Tuesday, including manufacturing giants 3M and Caterpillar. Caterpillar reported a steep drop in year-over-year earnings, sending the stock down more than 1%. 3M, meanwhile, dipped 1.7% even after posting stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue.

Wall Street is also gearing up for Microsoft earnings after the bell on Tuesday. The technology giant saw revenue grow 13% last quarter despite the pandemic. Advanced Micro Devices and Chubb also report following the close on Tuesday.

Friday and Saturday saw cases spike above 83,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The data on Sunday also showed the country has reported a record average of 68,767 cases per day over the past seven days.

Prices for the 10-Year Treasury gained slightly, lowering yields to 0.79% from Monday’s 0.80%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices regained 39 cents at $38.95 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices gained $3.10 to $1,908.80

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