The Toronto stock market was lower Monday as earlier relief faded over a bailout deal for Cyprus, a deal aimed at preventing the country from sliding into bankruptcy and ditching the euro currency.
The S&P/TSX index gave back 76.64 points to end the day at 12,680.71
The Canadian dollar improved 0.20 cents to 97.92 cents U.S.
Shares in smartphone maker BlackBerry fell for a second session in a row ahead of the release of its quarterly earnings on Thursday. Its stock was off 67 cents, or 4.4%, to $14.52, on top of an 8% slide Friday as the smartphone maker’s new Z10 product officially went on sale in the U.S.
The company’s fourth-quarter earnings give a glimpse into how well the smartphones are selling in Canada, the U.K. and India, though details on its U.S. launch and other markets won’t be part of the financial report until the next earnings period.
Elsewhere on the TSX, the base metals sector declined, with May copper off two cents at $3.44 U.S. a pound. First Quantum Minerals dropped 67 cents, or 3.3%, to $19.45.
The gold sector dropped as Goldcorp Inc. lost 60 cents to $33.73.
The energy sector was down as Cenovus Energy dropped 48 cents to $31.45.
The industrials sector lost as Bombardier Inc. shed 11 cents to $3.95. The transportation giant said Monday that it has fully powered up the main electrical systems for the first time on its CSeries test aircraft.
The company also says it has completed two crucial wing tests ahead of the commercial plane’s first flight by the end of June.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faded three points by the end of Monday to 1,103.35
All but two of the 14 Toronto subgroups were down on the day, the metals and mining sector taking the biggest hit, off 1.7%, while gold slid 1.5% and materials doffed 1.4%.
The two gainers were telecoms and consumer discretionaries, each up less than 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks stayed firmly in the red Monday, as investors worried whether Cyprus could set a precedent for other debt strapped euro-zone nations.
The Dow Jones Industrials dumped 64.28 points to end Monday at 14,447.80, after hitting a new Intraday high early in the session.
The S&P 500 index was off 3.68 points to 1,553.21. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite docked 9.70 points to 3,235.30.
Traders said volume was particularly light.
Shares of major U.S. banks followed suit. Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase all dropped between 1% and 2%.
Aside from Cyprus, Dell shares jumped more than 3%, after the PC maker said early Monday that it had received two competing bids to founder Michael Dell's buyout offer. Both Carl Icahn's Icahn Enterprise and Blackstone Group submitted separate buyout offers which Dell said may turn out to be superior.
Tesla's stock surged in late trading, after CEO Elon Musk tweeted that a "really exciting @TeslaMotors announcement" would be "coming on Thursday."
Shares of Apollo Group rallied 9%, after the company reported earnings that blew past estimates, even as enrollment at University of Phoenix declined nearly 16%.
BlackBerry continued to come under pressure, after its new Z10 phone received a lukewarm reception by U.S. consumers. Goldman Sachs also downgraded the smartphone maker to neutral, calling the U.S. launch "disappointing."
Shares of Dollar General rose after the retailer's profit topped expectations.
Best Buy stock rose after the retailer’s founder, who recently dropped a plan to take the company private, announced that he would return to become chairman emeritus.
Shares of Facebook dropped more than 2% after the SEC approved NASDAQ’s plan to pay $62 million U.S. to trading firms that incurred losses on the day of Facebook's IPO.
Meantime, Cyprus' new bailout program includes a deep restructuring of the country's banking sector, but will also protect deposits will less than €100,000, or about $13 billion U.S. A plan to tax all bank accounts, a key sticking point that had enraged Cypriots, was shelved.
Without a deal, the tiny state risked losing emergency funding from the European Central Bank as early as Tuesday. That would have meant financial collapse and almost certain exit from the euro-zone.
Investors had largely dismissed Cyprus' bailout as confined to the tiny island nation. But investors got spooked after the head of the Eurogroup of euro-zone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, told Reuters that what happened in Cyprus could be a model for bailouts throughout the EU.
Dijsselbloem later issued a statement rebutting those comments, saying Cyprus was "a specific case with exceptional challenges." He also noted that economic plans are "tailor made" for the country involved, and "no models or templates are used."
Prices on the 10-year U.S. Treasury regained lost ground, dropping yields to Friday’s 1.91%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 86 cents to $94.57 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices fell $2.20 to $1,603.90 U.S. an ounce.
