Canada's main stock index lost ground on Thursday, weighed by shares of Manulife and WSP Global after both companies separately announced deals to buy operations from British firms.
The S&P/TSX composite index plummeted 80.84 points to conclude Thursday at 15,576.79.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.10 cents to 91.95 cents U.S.
Manulife and WSP’s woes were offset by gains in the consumer staples sector as Alimentation Couche-Tard, rose after several analysts raised their price target on the stock. Couche-Tard earlier in the week reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and its shares were up 3.5% at $36.70.
Manulife was down 1.4% after it was announced late on Wednesday that it will buy the Canadian operations of Britain's Standard Life in a near-$4-billion deal. Manulife was most recently trading at $22.05.
WSP Global fell 3.9% to $35.50 after it said it would buy Balfour Beatty's U.S. professional services division.
Energy shares dipped, with Suncor Energy down 0.1% at $44.08. Energy stocks have risen about 17% this year, but one expert said a buildup in commodity inventories could be a bigger concern than stock valuations.
Gold stocks took the biggest hit in Toronto Thursday, with Iamgold docking nearly 5% to $3.94, and Barrick Gold losing 4.2% to $18.51.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that our merchandise exports increased 1.4% in July, while imports edged down 0.3%. As a result, Canada's trade surplus with the world widened from $1.8 billion in June to $2.6 billion in July.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange lost 14.75 points to 995.43.
All but four of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower on the day, with gold stocks stumbling 3.4%, materials down 2.3%, and energy off 1.3%
The four gaining subgroups were led by consumer staples, up 1.4%, industrials, up 0.2%, and telecoms, up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
The optimism that sent indexes to new intraday highs after the European Central Bank’s surprise interest-rate cuts Thursday had fizzled out by the end of the session, as indexes dipped into the red.
The Dow Jones Industrials slid 8.70 points to close Thursday at 17,069.58
The S&P 500 dipped 3.07 points to 1,997.65. The NASDAQ fell 10.28 points to 4,562.29.
PVH Corp. shares jumped 9% after the owner of the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands reported second-quarter earnings beat expectations Wednesday.
GoPro Inc. shares dropped 6.7% after J.P. Morgan Chase downgraded the stock to neutral, citing its valuation
The European Central Bank unexpectedly lowered all its interest rates Thursday to fresh record lows.
The ECB’s action was seen as a positive because it shows the central bank is ready to counter falling inflation in the euro-zone. The move outweighed slightly softer-than-expected reports on the U.S. labour market ahead of the monthly jobs report due on Friday.
Thursday’s key U.S. economic report is ADP’s report on hiring in the private sector, which showed a slowdown during August. The country’s largest payroll-processing firm said the private sector added 204,000 jobs in August, which was below the 215,000 jobs expected.
Weekly jobless claims numbers rose slightly more than expected, but remain near an eight-year bottom.
The two reports are preludes to the August jobs report on Friday. Economists expect 226,000 non-farm-payroll jobs were added in August.
Separately, the U.S. trade deficit shrunk in July, and the June gap was revised lower, offering evidence that trade was slightly less of a drag on the nation’s growth during the summer than initially reported.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell, raising yields to 2.45% from Wednesday’s 2.41%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped $1.03 to $94.51 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slid eight dollars to $1,262.30 U.S. an ounce.
