Canada's main stock index sagged on Monday, as Teck Resources considered multiple buyout offers, while gains in energy stocks were offset by losses in miners.
The TSX lost 21.76 points to reach noon at 20,558.15.
The Canadian dollar slid 0.24 cents to 74.63 cents U.S.
Teck jumped $3.19, or 5.3%, to $63.62, after the miner was approached by Vale SA, Anglo American Plc and Freeport-McMoRan among others, to explore deals for its base metals business if Teck goes ahead with a planned split.
Industrials rose lifted by a gain of 63 cents in shares of Toromont Industries to $107.00, after the heavy machinery company announced sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary AgWest Ltd.
Among other major movers, Algonquin Power & Utilities added eight cents to $11.62, after the company and American Electric Power decided to terminate a deal for American Electric's Kentucky operations.
The TSX has gained for four straight weeks, buoyed largely by miners and energy stocks, while upbeat earnings from major U.S. banks boosted the heavyweight financials as well.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reported foreign investment in Canadian securities totaled $4.6 billion in February, led by acquisitions of corporate bonds. Meanwhile, Canadian investors reduced their exposure to foreign securities by $1.6 billion, a third consecutive month of divestment., while wholesale sales declined 1.7% to $85.6 billion in February. Decreased sales in the motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts and accessories and the food, beverage and tobacco subsectors led the decline.
The Canadian Real Estate Association noted national home sales rose 1.4% month-over-month in March. Actual (not seasonally adjusted) monthly activity came in 34.4% below March 2022.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 6.37 points midday to 631.51.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were red by noon, with gold descending 1.3%, while energy and consumer staples fell back 0.4% each.
The five gainers were led by health-care, better by 2.3%, real-estate, up 0.7%, and information technology, improving 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 fell slightly Monday as traders pored over the latest batch of corporate earnings results, searching for clues on the health of corporate America.
The Dow Jones Industrials hesitated 7.06 points to break for lunch at 33,879.41.
The S&P 500 fell 8.49 points Monday to 4,129.15.
The NASDAQ dipped 44.39 points to 12,080.31.
Earnings season pressed on with results from State Street and Charles Schwab before the bell. Schwab shares, which have come under pressure amid fears that the brokerage firm may suffer a similar fate to Silicon Valley Bank, rose 2.5% on a profit beat despite a decline in deposits. The company’s defended its financial position in recent weeks, noting last month it has a low loan-to-deposit ratio. State Street, meanwhile, missed on the top and bottoms.
Wall Street is closely monitoring the health of financial names this earnings period after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last month spurred a liquidity crisis and rocked the broader sector.
Elsewhere, the S&P’s communication services sector slumped 1.7%, led to the downside by declines from tech giants Alphabet, Netflix and Meta Platforms. The Google parent company fell 3.5% as The New York Times reported that Samsung could make Microsoft’s Bing its default search engine.
Corporate earnings got off to a positive start last week as banking giants Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase beat expectations, seeming to suggest that behemoths are holding up against mounting recession fears.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury docked some of their strength, raising yields to 3.60% from Friday’s 3.51%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices sank $1.65 to $80.87 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices backtracked $13.50 to $2,002.30 U.S. an ounce.
