Equities in Canada’s largest market including losses for energy and financial sector shares, as oil prices fell and global stocks retreated.
The S&P/TSX Composite stumbled 120.31 points to open Friday at 14,119.71
The Canadian dollar eked up 0.02 cents to 78.63 cents U.S.
Hudson's Bay reported better-than expected quarterly sales as it benefited from its expansion in Europe and the acquisition of online retailer Gilt. The company's net loss widened to $97 million, or 53 cents per share, in the first quarter from $49 million, or 27 cents per share, a year earlier. Retail sales rose to $3.30 billion for the three months ended April 30 from $2.07 billion.
Bay shares dropped 42 cents, or 2.7%, to $14.94.
Canadian Natural Resources said it and Cenovus Energy restarted operations at two oil sands facilities in the Wabasca region of northern Alberta on Thursday after a wildfire threat dissipated. Cenovus said it was in the process of restarting production at its 23,000 -barrel-per-day project on Thursday after it evacuated all 118 workers and shut down production two days prior.
Natural Resources shares hesitated 85 cents, or 2.2%, to $37.23, and Cenovus shares faltered 19 cents, or 1.2%, to $19.05.
TransCanada Corp will conduct two separate 24-hour outages on its 590,000-barrel-per-day Keystone crude oil pipeline in July upstream of Steele City, Nebraska.
TransCanada shares lost 41 cents to $54.74.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International will pay $54 million U.S. to settle civil charges that its Salix unit paid illegal kickbacks to induce doctors to prescribe seven of its products, causing the submission of thousands of fraudulent reimbursement claims to the U.S. government.
Valeant shares dipped 70 cents, or 2.2%, to $31.49.
Barclays cut the price target on North West Company to $28 from $29 as risks may force the company to take a conservative approach to dividend growth this year.
North West shares acquired nine cents to $29.96.
CIBC cut the target price on Transat to $7.75 from $8.00, based on the impact of increasing competition in to the sun markets on the company’s winter results.
Transat shares moved lower 22 cents, or 2.9%, to $7.43.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that the economy created 14,000 jobs during May. With fewer people searching for work, the unemployment rate declined 0.2 percentage points to 6.9%, the lowest rate since last July.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 1.59 points to 721.76
All but two of the 13 TSX subgroups were lower to start out, as metals and mining collapsed 2.5%, energy subsided 1.7%, and information technology capsized 1.3%.
Those two gainers were gold, up 1.7%, and materials, better by 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded lower Friday with financials leading declines as global benchmark yields extended their recent slide.
The Dow Jones Industrials gave back 109.99 points, to 17,875.20, with Goldman Sachs and 3M having the greatest negative impact.
The S&P 500 lost 14.15 points at 2,101.28, with financials and information technology leading all 10 sectors lower.
The NASDAQ retreated 47.03 points to 4,911.58
In economic news, the preliminary read on consumer sentiment for June was 94.3, a touch lower than May's final read of 94.7.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained, lowering yields to 1.64% from Thursday’s 1.68%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices shed 81 cents a barrel to $49.75 U.S.
Gold prices picked up $6.80 to $1,272.80 U.S. an ounce.
