Mining stocks led the way to a negative start to second quarter trading on the Toronto stock market Monday as data showed the American manufacturing sector expanded at a much slower than expected pace last month.
The S&P/TSX index gave back 37.28 points to greet noon at 12,712.62
The Canadian dollar was up 0.06 cents at 98.34 cents U.S.
The TSX starts the second-quarter trading period up a slight 2.5% year to date, down from highs of mid-March when the market was ahead about 3.5%, reflecting a stubbornly slow global economic recovery.
Meanwhile, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said Monday that the country’s manufacturing picked up in March in a potentially positive sign for the world’s second-largest economy.
Its Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 50.9 in March from 50.1 in February, which was the lowest reading in five months. Numbers above 50 denote expansion on a 100-point scale.
Chinese manufacturing is closely watched as an indicator of global consumer sales and demand for commodities such as copper and oil. High demand in the past has fueled higher share prices for energy and mining stocks on the resource-intensive TSX.
The base metals component fell as May copper slipped four cents to $3.36 U.S. a pound. Taseko Mines moved down eight cents to $2.75 while Teck Resources lost 31 cents to $28.29
Railway stocks fell alongside miners with Canadian Pacific Railway down $2.69 to $129.85.
The gold sector lost ground as Barrick Gold Corp. faded 30 cents to $29.54.
Tech stocks were also weak with CGI Group down 45 cents to $27.16 while smartphone maker BlackBerry gained 19 cents to $15.28.
The energy sector shed early gains to move down, though Cenovus Energy was up 30 cents at $31.76.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange docked 6.65 points to 1,092.35
All but one of the 14 Toronto subgroups were negative by lunch time, weighed mostly by global base metals, listing lower by 1.5%, while metals and mining were a co-runner-up with industrials, each off 1.4%.
Only health-care held out against the tide, up 0.7%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks dropped Monday on weaker than expected manufacturing numbers.
The Dow Jones Industrials faded 29.76 points to register at 14,548.80 at noon hour ET.
The S&P 500 index moved lower by 7.84 points from Thursday’s all-time high, to 1,561.35
The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite faded 27.68 points to 3,239.84.
U.S. stocks wrapped up a stellar first quarter Thursday, with the S&P 500 finally joining the Dow in hitting a new high. U.S. markets were closed on Good Friday.
Thin trading could result in volatility, experts say, even if there are no major news events.
In company news, Tesla Motors jumped 20%, after the electric car maker said it expects to achieve its first-ever quarterly profit based on strong sales of its all-electric Model S.
Shares of eBay rose 4% after analysts raised price targets on the online retailer.
On the economic slate, the Institute for Supply Management's monthly manufacturing index for March came in at 51.3. That was lower than estimates of 54.0 and also below its February reading.
Prices on the 10-year U.S. Treasury were up slightly, lowering yields to 1.84% from Thursday’s 1.85%. Treasury prices yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell back 68 cents to $96.43 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $3.70 to $1,596.70 U.S. an ounce.
