Stocks in Canada’s biggest centre fell on Wednesday, but was well off session lows, as weakness in heavily weighted bank, oil, and mining shares continued to pressure the market.
The S&P/TSX composite index remained negative 48.83 points to pause midday at 14,327.41
The Canadian dollar faded 0.47 cents at 76.78 cents U.S.
Enbridge Inc topped the index's losers, giving up 1.8% to $56.61. Canadian Natural Resources was not far behind, declining 1% to $31.43.
The index's materials group, home to mining companies, also pared earlier losses, but was still trading lower. First Quantum Minerals fell 3.6% to $13.49.
Financials were off, with Royal Bank of Canada giving back 0.6% to $76.13.
Bombardier Inc was also a heavy decliner, falling more than 16.1% to $1.50. The struggling Canadian plane and train maker's CSeries jetliner program has been plagued with years of cost overruns and delays, while the company has made a long string of management changes over the past year.
Among gainers, Canadian Pacific Railway recouped some of Tuesday's sell-off after it cut its full-year forecasts, and rose 3.9% to $202.62.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 5.6 points to 609.08.
Eight of the 14 TSX subgroups were lower, with global base metals down 1.8%, metals and mining off 1.4%, and energy stocks trailing 0.8%
The half-dozen groups gaining ground were led by utilities, up 0.6%, while gold and industrials each progressed 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded lower on Wednesday as disappointing tech earnings weighted down on the three major indices.
The Dow Jones industrial average ditched 88.49 points to 17,830.40.
The S&P 500 docked 5.68 points to 2,113.53. The NASDAQ index plummeted 38.99 points to 5,169.13.
Apple traded about 5.3% lower, after plunging more than 6% in the open. Shares tumbled almost 7% to below its 200-day moving average in after-hours trade on Tuesday. The firm's fourth-quarter revenue forecast fell short of forecasts and it missed some targets for iPhone sales.
Shares of Apple also exceeded their 30-day average trade volume of 43.77 million during morning trade.
The stock is a blue-chip component and the top-weighted Nasdaq 100 component.
Microsoft traded about 2%lower. The stock fell more than 3% in late trading after posting a $3.2-billion U.S. net loss for its fiscal fourth quarter ending June 30 following restructuring charges.
In economic news, U.S. home prices rose 0.4% in May from April, up from 5.7% a year ago, FHFA said.
Existing home sales rose 3.2% from the previous month in June.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries gained ground, lowering yields to 2.31% from Tuesday’s 2.34%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices plunged 76 cents a barrel to $50.10 U.S.
Gold prices fell $10.90 to $1,092.60 U.S. an ounce.
