Equities in Canada’s largest market ended lower Friday, led by declines in energy and consumer staple stocks, as investors stayed cautious ahead of next week’s federal election.
The TSX Composite dipped 111.74 points Friday to 20,490.36.
The Canadian dollar edged down 0.04 cents to 78.44 cents U.S.
On the corporate front -- TC Energy has signed a deal to sell its remaining 15% stake in the Northern Courier Pipeline to a partnership that includes Suncor Energy and eight Indigenous communities. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange subtracted 9.07 points to 886.83.
All but two of the 12 TSX were lower, with energy sliding 1.96%, consumer staples down 1.56% and financials off 1.01%.
On the upside, health-care stocks were up 0.30% and industrials rose 0.24%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks took a hit on Friday as investors remain cautious due to a resurgent Covid virus and a Federal Reserve meeting scheduled for next week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 166.44 points or 0.5% to close at 34,584.88, dragged down by a nearly 2.9% drop in Dow Inc. The S&P 500 shed 0.9% to 4,432.99 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.9% to close at 15,043.97.
For the month, stocks are also in the red. The Dow is down 2.2% in September. The S&P 500 is off by 2% this month but still just 2.5% from its all-time high. The Nasdaq has lost 1.4% this month.
The Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) two-day policy meeting next week should provide some clarity on the outlook for tapering and interest rates.
Shares of Invesco jumped 5.5% after the Wall Street Journal reported the money manager is in talks to combine with State Street’s asset-management business. Invesco manages about $1.5 trillion.
Technology stocks were mostly negative, with social media giant Facebook dropping 2.2%. Apple and Microsoft each lost 1.8%.
Shares of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. were down 0.5% after BMO Capital Markets analyst Gerrick Johnson downgraded the stock to market perform from outperform.
The 10-year Treasury note yielded 1.37%, up 4 basis points. It earlier reached a two-month high of 1.39%.
The November crude contract was down 4 cents at US$72.57 per barrel.
Spot gold was down 0.1% at $1,751.89 per ounce.
