Canada's main stock index opened lower on Friday after oil prices slipped on demand concerns, even as data showed the country's economy grew last month, buoyed by strength in manufacturing, retail trade and finance.
The TSX stumbled out of the gate 53.2 points to 19,202.72 Friday.
The Canadian dollar deleted 0.01 cents to 81.44 cents U.S.
Restaurant Brands International beat quarterly revenue estimates, as a reopening U.S. economy and government stimulus checks boosted spending at the company's Burger King chain.
Restaurant Brands galloped $2.51, or 3%, to $85.72.
ATB Capital Markets raised the rating on Baytex Energy to sector perform from underperform. Baytex shares docked a penny to $1.49.
Cormark Securities initiated coverage on Converge Technology Solutions with a buy rating. Converge shares gained nine cents, or 1.6%, to $5.73.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada said real gross domestic product grew 0.4% in February, following 0.7% growth in January, as 14 of the 20 industrial sectors were up.
Also, in March, the Industrial Product Price Index increased 1.6% month over month and 10.0% year over year.
Moreover, Canada's first budget in two years looks set to join a pile of stalled bills in a Parliament besieged by partisan squabbling, a logjam that could be the trigger Prime Minister Justin Trudeau uses to call an early election.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 1.68 to 943.88.
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups opened Friday lower, with information technology down 0.8%, consumer staples off 0.5%, and materials sinking 0.3%.
The three gainers were health-care, sprinting 1.8%, consumer discretionaries, up 0.5%, and real-estate, 0.1% to the good.
ON WALLSTREET
The major averages slipped on Friday as investors pored over a flurry of earnings results and a robust profit beat from e-commerce giant Amazon.
The Dow Jones Industrials tumbled 173.89 points to begin the week’s and month’s last session at 33,886.47
The S&P 500 lost 20.41 points from Thursday’s all-time high at 4,191.18.
The NASDAQ Composite let go of 23.67 points to 14,058.12.
Amazon, the last of Wall Street’s mega-cap tech companies to publish results, reported a record first-quarter profit. The Seattle-based firm said profits more than tripled to $8.1 billion and January-to-March sales soared 44% to $108 billion.
The results blew past Wall Street’s expectations with the company earning $15.79 per share vs. the consensus estimate of $9.54.
Amazon’s results showed demand remained strong for its massive online retail business even as the economy started to open up some.
Shares rose 1.5%, but that was not enough to lift sentiment for the whole market.
Twitter, meanwhile, moved in the opposite direction on user growth results and second-quarter revenue guidance that fell short of analysts’ forecasts. The social media platform said monetizable daily active users totaled 199 million during the three months ended March 31 and reported per-share earnings of 16 cents. Twitter plunged 14%.
Apple was coming under some slight pressure in the premarket after the European Union said the company’s App Store was breaching its competition rules. The shares were down 0.7%.
Exxon Mobil and Chevron were both trading lower after reporting before the bell. Chevron shares fell after quarterly EPS failed to exceed expectations.
On the economic calendar, March spending jumped a better-than-expected 4.2%. Personal incomes surged by a massive 21.1% amid more fiscal stimulus.
The PCE price index for March increased 0.5% month-over-month and 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. The core PCE, excluding food and energy, rose 0.4% for March and 1.8% year-over-year. The PCE inflation metric is watched closely by the Federal Reserve and Chairman Jerome Powell warned earlier in the week it may show a transitory increase in prices.
The inflation numbers apparently weren’t as high as feared, as the 10-year yield remained flat after the numbers were released.
Prices for 10-Year Treasurys were unchanged, keeping yields at Thursday’s 1.63%.
Oil prices faded $1.62 to $63.39 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices inched higher 10 cents to $1,768.40 U.S. an ounce.
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