Stocks in Canada’s biggest centre were still negative by midday Wednesday, as investors looked for tidbits of encouragement and/or wisdom from this afternoon’s announcement from the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 32.69 points to greet noon at 15,313.38
The Canadian dollar gained 0.41 cents to 83.51 cents U.S.
Tech issues took the hardest hit Wednesday morning, as Wi-Lan skidded 18 cents, or 5.7%, to $3.00, while Open Text Corp. sank $3.48, or 5.2%, to $63.17.
Utilities also went south, as Emera Inc. lost $1.01, or 2.4%, to $40.69, and Superior Plus were down 34 cents, or 2.4%, to $14.06.
Telecoms took a dive, too, as Rogers Communications fell 74 cents, or 1.7%, to $43.21.
Gold stocks tried to even things out, as Detour Gold jumped 83 cents, or 6.9%, to $12.83, and Lake Shore Corp. moved higher six cents, or 5.2%, to $1.21.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada’s industrial product price index nicked up 0.3% in March, largely as a result of higher prices for energy and petroleum products, while its raw materials price index dropped 0.3%, during the same month, mainly because of lower prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 1.59 points to 696.81
All but four of the 14 Toronto subgroups were down, as information technology stocks slid 1.9%, utilities hesitated 1.2%, and telecoms faded 1%.
The four gainers were led by gold, up 1%, energy, better by 0.9%, and health-care took on 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded lower on Wednesday as investors weighed a weaker-than-expected GDP report and earnings reports ahead of the Fed statement release.
The Dow Jones Industrials stumbled 124.49 points to 17,985.65, with UnitedHealth the greatest laggard and Visa leading gainers.
The S&P 500 index slid 8.43 points to 2,106.33, with health-care leading all laggards and energy the only advancer.
The NASDAQ index shed 27.32 points to 5,028.10.
Earnings were also in focus after restaurant stocks Buffalo Wild Wings and Panera missed expectations on both the top and bottom line.
MasterCard, the world's number-two debit and credit card company, reported a 17% rise in quarterly profit as people spent more using its cards and the company paid lower taxes.
Time Warner reported adjusted quarterly profit of $1.19 U.S. per share, 10 cents above estimates, with revenue also above forecasts. The company was helped by "March Madness" programming related to the annual NCAA college basketball tournament.
U.S. Steel posted an adjusted quarterly loss of seven cents per share, surprising Street analysts who had expected a 12-cent-U.S.-per-share profit. Revenue also missed estimates, as U.S. Steel said it has been hurt by significant steel imports. The company also lowered its earnings outlook for the full year
Twitter is on watch today after it plunged more than 20% following the premature release of its quarterly earnings report yesterday. Twitter is investigating how the report got released early, but the numbers disappointed investors with revenue falling short of Street estimates.
NASDAQ apologized on Wednesday morning for an operational issue on Shareholder.com that inadvertently posted the social media company's earnings ahead of schedule, exposing the release briefly to a third-party scrape.
Lumber Liquidators said it's been advised that the Justice Department is seeking criminal charges against the company relating to the importation of certain products, and that the DOJ probe will likely cost it about $10 million U.S. The company also reported an unexpected loss, and said Chief Financial Officer David Terrell would depart in June.
Reports say Alibaba, the China-based online retail giant, has imposed a hiring freeze, in an effort to make the company more efficient.
The advance estimate of first quarter GDP showed an increase of 0.2%, a sharp slowdown from the fourth quarter's 2.2% pace and below expectations of 1% growth. The government cited the strong dollar and the West Coast port strikes as negative factors.
Pending home sales data for March showed an increase of 1.1%, the fastest rate since last summer.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries sagged, lifting yields to 2.07% from Tuesday’s 2%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices hurtled higher $1.58 to $58.64 U.S.
Gold prices slid $4.30 to $1,209.60 U.S.
