Canada's main stock index retreated on Monday, as technology stocks tracked a slide in the U.S. tech-heavy NASDAQ, offsetting a bounce in oil stocks.
The TSX Composite plummeted 146.52 points by lunch hour to 20,004.35.
The Canadian dollar took on 0.35 cents to 79.53 cents U.S.
Sun Life Financial gained $1.23, or 1.9%, to $66.29, after it agreed to buy oral healthcare company DentaQuest for $2.47 billion. Sun Life jumped $1.25, or 1.9%, to $66.31.
Ballard Power Systems lost 98 cents, or 5.5%, to $16.77, and Lightspeed POS dropped $10.55, or 8.5%, to $113.72
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada said the total value of building permits in Canada decreased 2.1% to $9.7 billion in August. Although most provinces reported increases, notable declines in Ontario and British Columbia pulled the national results lower compared with July.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 6.63 points to 859.25
All lbut three of the 12 TSX subgroups were down midday, with information technology stocks falling 3.9%, health-care down 3.3%m and industrials off 1.8%.
The three gainers were energy, rumbling 3%, gold, up 1.2%, and materials, better by 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
The major averages took steep losses to start the week as investors continued their rotation out of technology stocks amid rising bond yields.
The Dow Jones Industrials lost 392.23 points, or 1.1%, 33,934.23.
The S&P 500 dropped 73.28 points, or 1.7%, to 4,283.56
The NASDAQ Composite dropped 7373.67 points, or 1.7%, to 14,193.03.
Large tech shares like Apple, Nvidia, Amazon and Microsoft were lower as investors eyed bond yields. A surge in rates to end September knocked highly valued tech stocks.
Prices for 10-year Treasurys were higher, lowering yields to Friday’s 1.47%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $2.07 to $77.95 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices jumped $11.20 to $1,769.640 U.S. an ounce.
