Toronto equity markets opened little changed on Wednesday, as the Bank of Canada did as expected, keeping interest rates unchanged.
The S&P/TSX composite index subtracted 25.90 points to begin trading Wednesday at 14,708.79
The Canadian dollar lopped off 0.31 cents to 91.38 cents U.S.
Pent-up demand helped drive Canadian auto sales to a monthly record in May, with mass market brands and niche automakers both big winners, an independent auto industry analyst said on Tuesday.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG said on Tuesday that it met with Bombardier Inc on Monday and assured the Canadian plane maker it still believes in the $4.4-billion CSeries jetliner program despite an engine failure last week. Bombardier stock fell a nickel to $3.66.
BMO raised the rating on Canadian Pacific Railway to outperform from market perform. CP shares climbed $2.63, or 1.4%, to $189.63.
Salman Partners initiated coverage on Brazil Resources with a speculative buy rating. Brazil shares were unchanged at 91 cents.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported this morning that our merchandise exports declined 1.8% with imports hiking 1.4% in April. As a result, Canada's trade balance with the world went from a surplus of $766 million in March to a deficit of $638 million in April.
The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1%. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1.25% and the deposit rate is 0.75%
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange took on 0.62 points to 982.64.
The 14 Toronto subgroups were evenly split between gainers and losers, with gold and global base metals each moving ahead 0.3%, and industrials poking ahead 0.1%.
The seven laggards were weighed most by health-care and the metals and mining group, each down 0.4%, and real-estate, off 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
All three U.S. stock indices were flat to modestly lower in early trading.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 37.02 points to 16,685.32
The S&P 500 dropped 2.18 points to 1,922.06, and the NASDAQ composite index inched ahead 0.22 points to 4,234.30
On the earnings front, shares of Brown-Forman rose after the maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey reported quarterly results that topped expectations. The stock is among the top 10% of S&P 500 companies this year.
Shares of Legg Mason surged 13% after the Stifel Financial said it would buy the part of Legg Mason that provides investment advisory and trust services.
Handbag and accessory maker Coach continues to struggle. It is down around 3% in early trading and off more than 30% for the year as it struggles to remake its brand and boost sales.
Data from paycheque processor ADP showed that private sector payrolls grew by 179,000 in May, which was below the 210,000 figure that economists had predicted.
The private sector data is often seen as a preview of the government's monthly report on hiring and unemployment, which comes out Friday.
The upcoming jobs report could mark an important milestone. The U.S. economy needs to add 113,000 more jobs in order to finally recover all the jobs lost in the financial crisis.
Meanwhile, investors are also looking ahead to monetary policy announcement from the European Central Bank on Thursday.
The ECB is widely expected to cut interest rates, and could announce other stimulus measures, to prevent low inflation from derailing the fitful euro-zone economic recovery.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries slid, raising yields to 2.61% from Tuesday’s 2.59%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions
Oil prices gained 72 cents to $103.38 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices upped $2.90 to $1,247.40 U.S. an ounce.
