Equities in Canada’s largest centre retreated from a record high on Thursday, as major gold miners weighed the most while energy shares were pulled down by concerns over slow demand recovery in the global crude market.
The TSX/S&P Composite remained negative 46.2 points by noon Thursday at 20,507.81
The Canadian dollar gave back 0.05 cents to 79.89 cents U.S.
The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was ATS Automation Tooling Systems, which jumped 5.7% to extend gains into a second session after the company posted bumper quarterly results.
Northland Power fell 7.5%, the most on the TSX, after its revenue missed estimates. The second-biggest decliner was Endeavour Silver down 5.8%, tracking weakness in precious metals.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange wallowed 8.04 points to 916.04.
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower, as gold dipped 1.5%, materials stumbled 1.1% and energy lost 1%.
The four gainers were led by information technology, better by 0.7%, real-estate, up 0.2%, and consumer staples 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded mostly flat on Thursday, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 managed to notch intraday records as investors
weighed hot inflation readings but improved jobless claims data.
The 30-stock index stumbled 38.2 points from Wednesday’s all-time record close to reach noon hour EDT at5 35,446.77.
The S&P 500 regained 5.56 points to 4,453.26, to improve on Wednesday’s all-time high. Among the S&P sectors, health care and financial outperformed with gains of about 0.2% each, while tech and consumer discretionary stocks lagged.
The NASDAQ recovered 15.54 points to 14,780.68.
Among the S&P sectors, health-care and tech outperformed with gains of 0.5% and 0.35, respectively, while energy and materials stocks lagged. Salesforce and Apple were the best-performing stocks in the Dow while Visa shaved off about 20 points.
Dow member Disney will report earnings after the closing bell. The shares, down slightly in 2021, were down 0.2% during the regular session. Micron shares fell 5% after Morgan Stanley predicted a slowdown in the memory chip market and downgraded the stock.
The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday morning that initial jobless claims declined slightly last week as the U.S. labor market continues its recovery from last year’s recession. There were 375,000 claims last week, matching estimates. The prior reading came in at 385,000 claims.
The prices U.S. manufacturers and other businesses pay for labor, raw materials and other goods rose again in July. The government said its producer price index, excluding volatile food, trade services and energy components, rose 0.9% last month versus a forecast for a 0.5% gain.
Prices for 10-Year Treasurys slipped, raising yields to 1.37”% from Wednesday’s 1.33%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices were unchanged at $68.25 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lopped off 20 cents to $1,753.10 U.S. an ounce.
