Canada's main stock index fell amid a broad-based selloff on Tuesday, with energy stocks leading the fall on declining crude oil prices, as investors assessed the latest batch of U.S. inflation data.
The TSX Composite tumbled 115.35 points midday Tuesday session started at 20,203.01.
The Canadian dollar slid 0.15 cents at 73.48 cents U.S.
Manulife Financial rose 41 cents, or 1.5%, to $28.36, after RBC upgraded Canada's largest insurer to "outperform" from "sector perform".
Canada's biggest steelmaker, Stelco Holdings, gained $4.19, or 9.9%, to $46.58, after J.P.Morgan upgraded the stock to "overweight" from "neutral".
Cogeco Communications fell $3.33, or 5.8%, to $53.78, after Rogers Communications sold its stake in the company to Canada's second-largest pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Rogers, for its part, docked 26 cents to $61.36.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange retreated 5.61 points, or 1.1%, to 524.62.
All but one of the 12 subgroups were lower, with energy plunging 2.3%, while utilities sank 1.8%, while gold gave up 1.3%.
Industrials still held out against the negative tide, and only 0.4% at that.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks were higher on Tuesday as Wall Street parsed through another round of inflation data in search for clues on when the Federal Reserve could start easing monetary policy.
The Dow Jones Industrials sprinted 119.67 points to 36,524.60.
The S&P 500 gained 6.04 points to 4,628.48.
The NASDAQ hiked 35.53 points to 14,468.02.
Oracle were down 11% after the company’s revenue for the fiscal second quarter missed Wall Street expectations. Stock in retailer Macy’s pulled back nearly 4% following a downgrade to sell from Citi on Tuesday.
The U.S. consumer price index rose 3.1% in November year over year and 0.1% month over month. Economists polled by Dow Jones forecast a 3.1% annual increase. Month over month, they expected CPI to remain flat. Excluding food and energy, inflation rose in line with economist expectations.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained slightly, lowering yields to 4.22% from Monday’s 4.24%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped $2.40 to $68.86 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gathered $2.40 to $1,996.10.
