Equity markets on Tuesday continued their plunge early Tuesday as weakness in oil prices weighed on markets.
The S&P/TSX composite index descended 36.02 points to open Tuesday at 14,589.30
The Canadian dollar faded 0.70 cents to 87.65 cents U.S.
Spanish oil company Repsol is seeking partners to invest $4 billion to export natural gas from North America to Europe, which is looking to cut its dependence on supplies from Russia, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Barclays raised the price target on Dollarama to $54 from $47, with an equal weight rating. Dollarama shares dipped eight cents to $53.28.
CIBC raised the rating on Just Energy Group to sector perform from underperform. Just shares acquired 25 cents, or 4.7%, to $5.54.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 0.70 points to 724.32
Nine of the 14 Toronto subgroups still pointed downward, most notably gold, down 3.1%, materials, off 1.2%, and telecoms, sliding 0.9%.
Industrials led the five gainers, up 0.6%, information technology issues improved 0.4%, and consumer staples gained 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks were pointing to a rebound on Tuesday after a bruising on Monday, but a big retreat in commodity prices was putting some pressure on pre-market gains.
The Dow Jones Industrials sprang back into the green 55.51 points Tuesday morning to 17,832.31
The S&P 500 gained 7.77 points to 2,061.21. The NASDAQ index regained 20.06 points to 4,747.41
General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are due to release sales figures for November. GM is expected to report that sales edged up 0.6% to 213,418 units last month from a year earlier, according to Edmunds.com. Ford is likely to see its sales down 1.4% to 186,984 units.
Shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. were up nearly 5% in pre-market after being added to the S&P 500.
Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. was up 14% in pre-market after the company said it will be acquired by Japan’s Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. in a $3.5-billion U.S. deal, which will pay $17 U.S. per share for Avanir.
Shares of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. soared 12%, while Spansion Inc. surged 17% after the companies announced a $4-billion U.S. stock merger late Monday.
Construction spending for October is coming later this morning, while automobile sales for November are the only other piece of data on the calendar. Bigger data come Friday with the highly anticipated jobless data.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries withered, raising yields to 2.28% from Monday’s 2.22%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gave back $1.66 to $67.34 U.S.
Gold prices fell $22.40 at $1,195.70 U.S.
