Markets in Toronto fell on Tuesday as general weakness in financial and resource shares offset gains in Encana Corp after the natural gas producer said it will cut about 20% of its workforce and spinoff assets.
The S&P/TSX composite index greeted midday down 39.34 points – off its lows of the morning -- to 13,322.44
The Canadian dollar slid 0.25 cents at 95.71 cents U.S.
Uncertainty about whether the European Central Bank will cut interest rates and what direction the U.S. Federal Reserve will take with its monetary stimulus program also undermined sentiment.
After gaining close to 5% in the past month, the Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX composite index has pulled back.
Gold miners and other material stocks fell, among them, Goldcorp gave back 0.5% to $25.95. Potash Corp lost 0.8% to $33.62.
Financial shares hurt the market more than any other sector, falling 0.7%. Royal Bank of Canada, the country's biggest lender, dropped almost 1% to $69.65 and had the biggest negative influence on the index.
Shares of energy producers were down 0.2%, with Canadian Natural Resources Ltd declining 0.8% to $32.36.
Encana advanced 4.3% to $19.39.
The company said it will invest nearly three-quarters of its 2014 capital spending budget in its more lucrative oil and liquid gas assets.
In other company news, software maker Open Text Corp said it would buy privately held cloud services company GXS Group Inc for $1.17 billion. Open Text shares rose 6.1% to $82.26.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faded 3.67 points to 949.85
Of the 14 TSX subgroups, nine were negative, led by gold, down 1.2%, materials, off 0.8%, and consumer discretionary stocks, down 0.5%.
The five gainers were led by information technology, up 2.2%, health-care, up 0.7%, and the metals and mining sector, inching up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks are still hovering near all-time highs. But they drifted lower Tuesday as there were few catalysts to drive the market even higher.
The Dow Jones Industrials remained 16.77 points at noon Tuesday to 15,622.30
The S&P 500 index lost 3.48 points to 1,764.15. The NASDAQ gave back 1.51 points to 3,935.08
Investors did have a slew of earnings reports from top companies to parse through.
AOL was the big winner Tuesday morning. The online media company's stock spiked more than 7%, despite a sharp drop in profits. Investors looked more closely at the company's double-digit advertising revenue growth.
Michael Kors also soared on better-than-expected earnings. The fashion retailer also raised its outlook.
T-Mobile US had a wild ride Tuesday. After initially popping in early trading, its stock dipped more than 2%. The wireless company reported growth in quarterly revenue and one million new subscribers.
CVS surged on positive earnings, hitting its all-time high. Its results also pulled up shares of drug store rival Walgreen
DirecTV didn't fare as well. Its stock tumbled, despite reporting a rise in profits and new subscriber growth.
Tesla Motors and 21st Century Fox are due to report results in the afternoon.
Investors are eagerly awaiting Tesla's results. The electric car maker's stock has been one of the hottest market performers this year.
It's a big week for IPOs with more than a dozen new companies debuting.
Of course the IPO that everyone is watching is Twitter, which is expected to price its offering on Wednesday evening and begin trading Thursday.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury slumped, raising yields to 2.68% from Monday’s 2.60%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped $1.02 to $93.62 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices skidded $3.30 to $1,311.40 U.S. an ounce.
