The Toronto stock market slipped on Friday and headed toward a 1% decline for the week, with heavyweight resource and financial stocks notching moderate declines.
The S&P/TSX composite index plummeted 106.73 points to greet noon at 15,358.81
The Canadian dollar tailed off 0.32 cents to 91.12 cents U.S.
While energy stocks have weighed all week, TransCanada Corp bucked the trend, rising sharply for a second day after it said its existing setup is critical to its growth. TransCanada shares hiked 2% to $62.05.
Canadian Natural Resources fell 1.5% to $44.44, Suncor Energy slipped 1.1% to $42.59, and Encana declined 1% to $24.16.
Miners also weighed, with First Quantum Minerals falling 3.5% after it
suspended operations at a mine in Mauritania.
Banks also contributed to the downward pressure, as Bank of Nova Scotia was down 0.9% at $72.30, Royal Bank of Canada was off 0.5% at $82.67, and Toronto-Dominion Bank also slipped 0.5%, to $52.27.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that August’s Consumer Price Index inched up 0.1%, after a 0.1% decline in July. The agency also says consumer prices rose 2.1% in the 12 months to August, matching the increase in July.
The agency also noted that wholesale trade backtracked 0.3% in July to $52.9 billion, following three consecutive monthly gains.
Declines in five sub-sectors, which together represented 81% of wholesale sales, more than offset an increase in the motor vehicle and parts sub-sector.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange collapsed 5.03 points to 960.76.
All 14 Toronto subgroups were down by noon, metals and mining down 2.8%, materials and gold each off 1.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks were mixed early Friday afternoon, after scraping into record territory soon after the opening bell.
The Dow Jones Industrials retreated from its peaks of the morning, but was still positive 24.86 points to face noon ET at 17,290.85.
The S&P 500 dipped 0.23 points to 2,011.13. The NASDAQ lost 18.47 to 4,574.96.
Still, the blue-chip benchmark has notched a mere 4.2% year-to-date gain — even with this week’s rally — and its breakout opens the path to potentially significant incremental follow-through.
One of the world’s biggest IPOs in history made its debut today in New York. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. priced Thursday at $68.00 U.S., toward the high end of expectations. That pricing values Alibaba at $168 billion U.S., making it one of the largest U.S.-listed companies, with a larger market capitalization than Amazon.
Yahoo Inc. shares were up 1.7%. Yahoo owns a large stake in Alibaba.
Oracle Corp. fell 2.7% on Thursday’s news that Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison is stepping down in favour of Safra Catz and Mark Hurd, who will serve as co-CEOs.
Shares of Concur Technologies Inc. surged 19% on news Germany-based SAP AG will buy the software group in a deal valued at $8.3 billion U.S. The Wall Street Journal said the deal was the largest in SAP’s history. U.S.-listed shares of SAP fell 4%.
Stocks were supported by favourable outcomes in two ‘risk events’ this week. The Federal Reserve reiterated its commitment to facilitating the U.S. economic recovery by maintaining its view on the timing of interest-rate hikes, and Scotland voted to remain part of the United Kingdom.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries gained, lowering yields to 2.60% from Thursday’s 2.63%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped 73 cents to $92.34 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices went down $8.10 to $1,218.80 U.S. an ounce.
