Equity markets in Canada’s largest centre fell on Wednesday as precious and base metal miners and oil companies tracked commodity prices lower on growing bets of U.S. interest rate hikes.
The TSX climbed to within 3.58 points of breakeven to pause for noon hour at 20,681.10.
The Canadian dollar eased back 0.2 cents to 74.45 cents U.S.
In company news, Teck Resources edged up 28 cents to $64.72, 0.8% after miner Glencore told shareholders it is willing to improve its $22.5-billion takeover offer.
Suncor Energy lost 63 cents, or 1.5%, to $41.78, after reporting the release of 5,900 cubic metres (208,400 cubic feet) of water with more than twice the approved level of suspended solids from a sedimentation pond at its Fort Hills oil sands project in northern Alberta.
On the economic calendar, the Raw Materials Price Index decreased 1.7% in March and was down 16.5% year over year.
The Industrial Product Price Index edged up 0.1% in March from the previous month and fell 1.8% year over year.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said housing starts in Canada slipped by 11% over a month earlier to 213,865 units in March 2023, undershooting market expectations of 227,800 units.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 5.2 points to 625.29.
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly split by noon, with energy slid 1.1%, materials were down 1%, and health-care, sliding 0.9%.
The half-dozen gainers were led by consumer staples, up 1%, utilities, ahead 0.4%, and industrials, moving up 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 fell for the first day in three as companies including Netflix and Morgan Stanley declined after posting first-quarter results.
The Dow Jones Industrials caved 105.75 points to 33,870.88,
The benchmark index faded 7.63 points to 4,147.24.
The NASDAQ dropped 18.71 points, off its lows of the morning, to 12,134.70.
While many of the companies reporting in the last 24 hours topped analysts’ low-bar estimates, traders found something wrong within the results to send the stocks lower. A lack of forecasts from the major companies also left investors on edge with the Federal Reserve set to raise interest rates again in a couple weeks and recession fears swirling.
Netflix shares fell 3% as the streaming giant disappointed investors by pushing back plans to strictly clamp down on password sharing. In its latest quarter, Netflix beat analysts’ expectations on earnings per share, and added more subscribers than expected, but fell short of revenue expectations.
Earnings reports from major banking institutions wrapped up with Morgan Stanley. Shares fell slightly despite seemingly strong results as margins for its investment banking, wealth and asset management businesses were weaker than expected, according to Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo. He noted that normalizing the bank’s tax rate would show weaker-than-expected earnings for the quarter.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury weakened, lifting yields to 3.64% from Tuesday’s 3.58%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices ditched $1.47 to $79.39 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices skidded 17 dollars to $2,002.70 U.S. an ounce.
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