Stocks in Canada’s largest centre stumbled into the weekend, mostly on metals, gold and tech weakness, after flying high pretty much throughout the week.
The S&P/TSX Composite faded 32.1 points to close the day and the week at 14,482.42
The Canadian dollar moved backward 0.3 cents to 77.28 cents U.S.
Base metals stocks proved the biggest albatross Friday, as First Quantum Minerals dived in price 69 cents, or 6.3%, to $10.21.
In the tech field, Sierra Wireless dropped 75 cents, or 3.2%, to $22.57, while BlackBerry dipped two cents to $8.58.
Gold stocks fell as Kinross Gold declined nine cents, or 1.3%, to $6.87, while Goldcorp ended the day off 13 cents to $24.96.
Bank stocks proved the one strong group, as Scotiabank gained 40 cents to $65.63, while Bank of Montreal acquired 35 cents to $84.73.
Economically speaking, Statistics Canada reported manufacturing sales declined 1.0% to $49.9 billion in May, the third decrease in five months.
What’s more, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported national home sales fell 0.9% from May to June. Actual (not seasonally-adjusted) activity came in 5.2% above June 2015. The number of newly listed homes rose 2.2% from May to June.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 1.4 points to 766.36
All but one of the 13 subgroups were lower, as metals and mining swooned 2.2%, while gold and information technology each surrendered 0.7%,
Only financials made it into the green, and only 0.3% at that.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks closed mostly lower Friday as a massive rally on Wall Street eased.
The Dow Jones Industrials regained 10.14 points from Thursday’s all-time high to 18,516.55, with Boeing and Caterpillar contributing the most to gains.
The S&P 500 dropped 2.01 points to 2,161.74, with consumer discretionary leading seven sectors lower and materials leading advancers.
The NASDAQ Composite Index lost 4.47 points to 5,029.59
Wall Street continued to digest bank earnings Friday as Wells Fargo reported results in-line with consensus, and Citigroup reported results that easily beat analysts' expectations.
On Thursday, JPMorgan Chase beat estimates and BlackRock posted results in line with expectations.
On the economic beat, U.S. retail sales beat economists' expectations, up 0.6% in June versus consensus of a 0.1% increase, in another sign that consumer spending increased in the spring.
Consumer prices increased for the fourth straight month in June. Figures released Friday by the U.S. Labor Department showed the CPI rose 0.2% last month after a similar gain in May.
A key measure of consumers' attitudes, Index of Consumer Sentiment, was reported lower so far this month. Sentiment came in at 89.5 for July's preliminary reading, the University of Michigan said. Economists expected the preliminary sentiment index to hit 93
Prices for the 10-year Treasury weakened, boosting yields to 1.58% from Thursday’s 1.53%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices added 32 cents a barrel to $46.00 U.S.
Gold prices faded $3.20 to $1,329.00 U.S. an ounce.
