Equities in Toronto fell for a third straight session on Wednesday, reversing early gains, as U.S. economic data disappointed the market, while rising gold miners limited the loss.
The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 53.58 points to greet noon at 14,989.57
The Canadian dollar gained 0.50 cents to 83.70 cents U.S.
Among industrials, Canadian National Railway, the country's biggest railway, fell 2% to $74.97. Canadian Pacific Railway was not far behind, falling 2.1% to $214.94.
Energy stocks reversed course and fell, after initially climbing on stronger oil prices. Encana Corp fell 3.9% to $16.02.
The index's financial sector, home to banks and insurers, was down, with Manulife Financial Corp falling 0.9% to $22.82.
The most influential positive movers on the index included Goldcorp Inc, which led a number of gold miners into positive territory.
Goldcorp rose 3% percent to $23.43, while Barrick Gold Corp advanced 3.1% to $15.89.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eked up but 0.31 points to 692.13
All but four of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower midday, industrials faltering 1.4%, while health-care shares were sicker by 0.8%, and information technology clicked lower by 0.7%.
The four gainers were led by gold, up 2.6%. materials, up 1.3%, and real-estate, marginally ahead 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded narrowly mixed on Wednesday as bond yields advanced towards recent highs and investors eyed a weak retail sales report.
The Dow Jones Industrials saw their gains shrink to 10.88 points to 18,079.11, with Microsoft leading gains and DuPont the greatest laggard.
The S&P 500 index remained up 2.66 points to 2,101.78, with utilities the greatest of five laggards and information technology leading advancers.
The NASDAQ gained 11.60 points to 4,987.79
DuPont shares fell more than 5.5% after the firm won a proxy fight against activist investor Nelson Peltz of Trian Fund Management.
Major earnings included fashion retailers Macy's and Ralph Lauren before market open. JC Penney and Cisco are expected after the bell.
Macy's posted earnings that missed expectations, citing negative factors of West Coast port issues, winter weather and decreased spending by international tourists. The firm increased its dividend by 15% and raised its share repurchase authorization by $1.5 billion U.S.
Owens-Illinois is buying the food and beverage glass container business of Mexico's Vitro for $2.15 billion U.S. in cash. Vitro is the largest supplier of glass containers in Mexico.
Deutsche Bank upgraded Microsoft to "buy" from "hold," saying lower estimates and a slower PC market are already reflected in the stock, and that there's new investor enthusiasm about Office 365 and other products.
Retail sales data for April was flat, with the ex-autos figure up just 0.1%, below estimates of a 0.5% gain. Expectations were for the data to show modest growth, partly due to the warmer weather.
Besides retail sales, business inventories for March showed a gain of 0.1%, just shy of the expected 0.2%
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries peeked higher, lowering yields to 2.24% from Tuesday’s 2.25%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices stayed positive 26 cents a barrel to $61.01 U.S.
Gold prices hiked $22 to $1,214.40 U.S.
