Canada’s main stock index fell Tuesday, led by losses in shares of precious metal miners, as gold prices slipped to a more-than-two-week low.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index remained negative 31.88 points to greet noon Tuesday at 16,369.87
The Canadian dollar regained 0.02 cents to 74.49 cents
Markets in Canada were closed Monday for Victoria Day
Barrick Gold dipped 15 cents to $16.30, while Kinross Gold faded six cents, or 1.4%, to $4.19.
Agnico Eagle Mines slumped 52 cents to $54.81, while First Quantum Minerals slumbered 69 cents, or 5.8%, to $11.16.
One of the few bright spots came among communications, as Rogers gained 76 cents, or 1.1%, to $69.51, while BCE amassed 17 cents to $60.76.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange took on 1.93 points to 611.08.
Seven of the 12 Toronto subgroups remained in the red midday, as materials tumbled 1.2%, health-care was off 0.6%, and industrials lost 0.5%.
The five gainers were led by communications, up 0.6%, consumer discretionaries, ahead 0.5%, and utilities, forging up 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks traded higher on Tuesday on news that the U.S. temporarily eased restrictions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 136.67 points to pause for lunch hour Tuesday at 25,816.57, as Intel outperformed.
The S&P 500 increased 22.65 points to 2,862.88, with the tech sector jumping 1.4%.
The NASDAQ Composite leaped 83.34 points, or 1.1%, to 7,785.71.
Equities also got a boost from Boeing. Shares of the airplane maker rose 1% after The Wall Street Journal reported that a bird collision may have caused the 737 Max crash in March.
Shares of chipmakers like Micron Technology, Qualcomm and Xilinx all rose more than 2%. Nvidia moved ahead 2.1%, and Lam Research gained 2%.
Kohl’s shares plunged 12% after reporting weaker-than-expected earnings. J.C. Penney also dropped 9.1% following the release of its quarterly numbers.
Trade tensions are not going away any time soon. Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled there would be no end to the trade war in the near future. Last week, some media outlets learned that scheduling talks regarding trade negotiations had stalled.
The U.S. Commerce Department said Monday night it would allow Huawei to purchase American-made goods in order to maintain existing networks and provide software updates to existing Huawei handsets until Aug. 19. The move sought to minimize disruption for the telecom company’s customers around the world.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, raising yields to 2.43% from Monday’s 2.41%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices docked 33 cents to $62.77 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slid $4.20 to $1,273.10 U.S. an ounce.
