Canada's main stock index opened lower on Tuesday, weighed down by escalating trade tensions between the United States and China.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index tumbled 91.37 points to open Tuesday at 16,292.26
The Canadian dollar surrendered 0.43 cents to 75.32 cents U.S.
Credit Suisse raised the price target on Baytex Energy to $5.50 from $4.50. Baytex shares gained eight cents, or 1.8%, to $4.55.
Desjardins raised the target price on Terago Inc. to $6.00 from $5.75. Terago shares were static at $6.05.
The Trudeau Liberals suffered a setback on Monday when they lost a parliamentary seat in Quebec, where party officials say they need to pick up support to bolster their chances of retaining power in 2019.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 1.95 points to 750.29
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were to the downside, with materials plummeting 1.2%, consumer discretionary stocks off 1.1%, and industrials sliding 1%.
The three gainers were health-care, surging 1.2%, utilities, better by 0.2%, and gold, up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell sharply on Tuesday after President Donald Trump's latest threat to China increased fears of an impending trade war between the world's largest economies.
The Dow Jones Industrials dropped 380.87 points, or 1.5%, to 24,606.60, with Boeing, DowDuPont and Caterpillar as the worst-performing stocks in the index. The 30-stock index also erased all of its gains for the year.
The S&P 500 lost 26.34 points, or 1%, to 2,747.41, with materials, industrials and tech all falling more than 1%.
The NASDAQ sank 90.54 points, or 1.2%, to 7,656.48
Shares of some of the biggest chipmakers fell given their large exposure to China. Qualcomm and Nvidia both dropped at least 1.5%. On average, semiconductor and semiconductor equipment companies get 52% of their revenue from China, according to a recent report from Morgan Stanley.
Ford Motor, which also does a large amount of business in China, saw its stock pull back about 2.2%. Meanwhile, Caterpillar and Boeing— considered two bellwethers for trade tensions on Wall Street —both dropped at least 3.5%.
Trump asked the United States Trade Representative to identify $200 billion worth of Chinese goods for additional tariffs, at a rate of 10%. If China "refuses to change its practices" and insists on continuing with the new tariffs it recently declared, then the additional levies would be imposed on Beijing, Trump said Monday night.
Soon after, the Chinese Commerce Ministry issued a response, stating that the latest threat of more tariffs violates previous negotiations and consensus reached between both the U.S. and China. "The United States has initiated a trade war that violates market laws and is not in accordance with current global development trends," the ministry said.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained, lowering yields to 2.88% from Monday’s 2.92%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slid 53 cents to $65.32 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost $2.60 at $1,277.50 U.S. an ounce.
