Canada's main stock index began the day downcast Monday, as strength in the gold-mining sector, following higher bullion prices, was offset by a decline in shares of BlackBerry.
The S&P/TSX composite index fell 67.53 points, on top of Friday’s 150-point downward trip, to open Monday at 14,884.97.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.17 cents to 79.42 cents U.S.
Concordia Healthcare Corp., which makes drugs for rare diseases and devices for diabetic patients, said it would buy some assets of privately held Covis Pharma Holdings SARL for $1.2 billion in cash. Concordia Healthcare shares hiked $12.70, or 19.2%, to $76.86.
A Canadian National Railway train carrying crude oil that derailed near the northern Ontario community of Gogama, near Timmins, early on Saturday was still on fire Sunday. CN shares dipped 66 cents to $85.00.
Goldman Sachs downgraded BlackBerry to sell, cutting its target price to $11.00 from $12.00. BlackBerry shares took a 5.1%, losing 68 cents, to $12.76.
Barclays raised the target price on Canadian Natural Resources to $41.00 from $39.00. Canadian Natural shares fell 14 cents to $37.33.
CIBC raised the target price on GMP Capital Inc. to sector perform from underperform. GMP shares inched forward seven cents to $5.00.
Economically speaking, Canadian housing starts fell much more sharply than expected in February, while January numbers were revised slightly lower, data showed on Monday.
A report from Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp showed the seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts fell to 156,276 units last month from a downwardly revised 187,025 in January. That fell short of the 180,000 economists had expected.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange demurred 1.02 points to 687.77
All 14 Toronto subgroups were down, gold sliding 1.3%, energy down 1.1%, and utilities sliding 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded mostly higher on Monday as investors reevaluated the impact of Friday's strong jobs report on the timing of a U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hike.
The Dow Jones Industrials recovered 74.82 points at 17,931.60, with Nike leading gains and Intel the greatest laggard.
The S&P 500 improved 5.41 points to 2,076.67, with industrials leading gains, and health-care the greater of two declining sectors.
The NASDAQ index bolted higher 7.62 points to 4,934.99
Apple is in focus Monday as it holds its first major event of the year, where it is set to formally unveil the price and final features of its watch at a meeting in San Francisco, which kicks off at 1 p.m. ET.
General Motors will buy back $5 billion U.S. in stock, and commit to returning any cash above $20 billion U.S. in the future to shareholders. Activist investor Harry Wilson has agreed to drop his bid to join the GM board following that announcement.
Alcoa is buying metals producer RTI International Metals in a $1.5-billion U.S. stock transaction.
Goldman Sachs issued a buy rating on Exxon Mobil as it said the firm is the only one of the oil majors that will generate positive free cash flow in 2016, and will have the cash the make acquisitions going forward.
Earnings due after the bell Monday include Urban Outfitters, Casey's General, United Natural Foods.
No major economic reports are expected Monday.
Investors now see a June rate rise as more likely after February's non-farm jobs report showed a gain of 295,000, above expectations of 240,000 in February, down from 257,000 in January.
The unemployment rate fell to 5.5%, while hourly wages ticked up 0.1%, below consensus and off the surprise 0.5% gain in January.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries gained ground, lowering yields to 2.20% from Friday’s 2.24%. Treasury prices and yields tend to move in opposite directions.
Oil prices sank four cents to $49.57 U.S.
Gold prices regained $6.10 to $1,170.40 U.S.
