Shares on Canada’s biggest stock market were slightly lower in early trade on Tuesday, with energy stocks down marginally with cheaper oil and materials stocks also trading lower.
The S&P/TSX Composite slipped 20.87 points to open at 14,511.53
The Canadian dollar slumped 0.57 cents to 76.67 cents U.S.
Sun Life Financial and Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional are in talks to buy the insurance business of Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd. The deal, valued by the sources at about three billion ringgit ($752.26 million U.S.), would allow Sun Life to expand further into growing Asian markets while Khazanah would get a strong foothold in the insurance business.
Sun Life shares began Tuesday off two cents to $42.72.
National Bank Financial raised the target price on Gildan Activewear to $45.00 from $43.00 is largely due to advancement of base valuation period and FX changes.
Gildan shares docked 13 cents to $40.51.
National Bank Financial raised the target price on Open Text to $80.00 from $65.00 based on the recent acquisitions to model and rolling out full-year 2018 estimates.
Open Text gained $1.27, or 1.6%, to $78.98.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slipped into negative territory 2.62 points to 763.74
Seven of the 13 subgroups were higher in the first hour of trading, as gold and information technology issues triumphed 0.4%, while industrials eked ahead 0.2%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by metals and mining, down 2.1%, while energy straggled 0.7%, and health-care lost 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
Wall Street pulled back slightly Tuesday after weeks of record highs for stocks, as investors digested second-quarter earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrials added 19.62 points from Monday’s all-time high to 18,552.67, with Johnson & Johnson adding the most to gains.
The S&P 500 gave back 3.83 points to 2,163.06, with health-care as the only sector adding to gains. Materials and consumer staples led nine sectors lower.
The NASDAQ Composite Index tottered 11.54 points to 5,044.25
Bank earnings continued to surprise with Goldman Sachs posting better-than-expected results Tuesday. Goldman joins Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America on the list of big U.S. financial institutions topping second-quarter profit forecasts.
However, shares of Netflix fell more than 13 % in pre-market trading after the company beat on earnings Monday, but posted subscriber numbers that missed guidance.
Johnson & Johnson beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly sales, helped by strength in its pharmaceuticals business, the company said.
The stock rose more than 2% on the news, trading at an all-time high dating back to 1972.
U.S. housing starts rose more than expected in June, at a pace of 1.19 million units versus economists' expectations of a 1.17 million-unit pace.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained, felling yields to 1.56% from Monday’s 1.59%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lost 32 cents a barrel to $44.92 U.S.
Gold prices gained $2.50 to $1,331.80 U.S. an ounce.
