Equity markets in Canada’s biggest market see-sawed in morning trade on Wednesday, helped by gains among banks, railways and telecom stocks, while a fall in the price of oil and other commodities pushed energy and mining shares lower.
The S&P/TSX composite index fell 39.75 points to open Wednesday at 13,802.17
The Canadian dollar doffed 0.49 cents at 76.56 cents U.S.
The most influential gainers included telecom company BCE Inc, which rose 0.9% to $58.05, and Canadian National Railway, which advanced 0.7% to $79.10.
The financials group climbed, with Toronto-Dominion Bank rising 0.5% to $53.43, and Royal Bank of Canada advanced 0.4% to $74.71.
Celestica Inc fell 9.7% to $15.39 after its earnings and outlook missed expectations.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International continued its recent slide, retreating 2.6% to $184.06.
Barclays raised the price target on Canadian Oil Sands to $10.00 from $6.00 following the company’s board recommendation to reject Suncor Energy Inc’s bid.
Oil Sands shares faded six cents to $9.79.
UBS raised the target price on Canadian Pacific Railway to $224.00 from $209.00 on the company’s third-quarter earnings.
CP stock added 88 cents to $197.60.
Atrium Mortgage Investment reports Q3 earnings today, expecting 24 cents per share. Atrium shares were unchanged at $11.57.
The Bank of Canada Wednesday stayed put with its benchmark interest rate at 0.5%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 0.94 points to 549.86
Eight of the 13 TSX subgroups were higher, as consumer staples and telecoms each climbed 0.8%, while financials were better by 0.5%.
The five laggards were weighed most by gold, down 2.2%, while health-care shed 1.9%, and energy was 1.8% weaker.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities traded in a narrow range Wednesday, as investors took in fresh corporate earnings.
The Dow Jones industrial average faded 13.43 points to 17,217.11, led by Disney and with UnitedHealth Group as the greatest laggard.
The S&P 500 dipped 2.92 points to 2,030.74, with telecommunications leading seven sectors higher and health care the greatest laggard.
The NASDAQ index lost 27.13 points to 4,878.34
Companies that posted quarterly results included Coca-Cola, Boeing, and General Motors. Boeing and GM beat expectations on both earnings and revenue, but Coca-Cola sales fell short of estimates.
Shares of GM and Boeing rose more than 4%, while Boeing's stock gave back its initial gains. Coca-Cola's stock dropped about 0.5%.
Firms scheduled to report after the bell include American Express, eBay and Raymond James.
IBM's stock closed at its lowest levels since October 2010 on Tuesday, leading all three major indexes to snap a three-day winning streak.
In corporate news, Ferrari opened for trading at $60 a share, about 15% above its $52 U.S. pricing.
SanDisk will be bought by Western Digital for $86.50 U.S. a share in cash and stock, or $19 billion U.S.
Morgan Stanley downgraded Twitter's stock to "underweight" from "equal-weight," citing limited user growth and a lack of advertiser demand growth.
Toyota will recall 6.5 million vehicles to fix a power window defect.
Investors also digested EIA oil inventories data, which showed inventories rise by eight million barrels, as U.S. crude prices have fallen over 4.5% this week.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries acquired new strength, dropping yields to 2.04% from Tuesday’s 2.07%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices sank $1.06 a barrel to $45.23 U.S.
Gold prices fell $12.13 to $1,163.91 U.S. an ounce.
