Equities in Canada’s largest market turned negative shortly after the open on Wednesday, as a sharp decline in energy companies, hurt by falling oil prices, offset a broad rally in most other sectors.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index opened Wednesday 33.71 points lower to 15,338.64
The Canadian dollar slumped 0.05 cents at 74.18 cents U.S.
The struggles of Canadian lender Home Capital Group are pushing more borrowers towards less regulated mortgage providers, raising the risks for them and the wider property market.
Home Capital shares skidded nine cents, or nearly 1%, to $9.05.
Barclays raises price target on Bank of Nova Scotia to $86.00 from $84.00, with an overweight rating
Scotiabank shares dipped 46 cents to $76.14.
CIBC cut the rating on Redknee Solutions to neutral from outperform. Redknee shares tacked on three cents, or 3.9%, to 80 cents.
National Bank of Canada started coverage on Step Energy Services with an outperform rating. Step shares gave back two cents to $9.70.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reported Canada’s GDP hiked 0.5% in March, following no change in February. Growth was widespread across goods and service-producing industries.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slumped 4.78 points to 804.96
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly divided between gainers and losers in Wednesday’s first hour.
Gold gained 0.6%, consumer staples advanced 0.3%, and health-care picked up 0.2%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by health-care, settling 1.1%, financials, off 0.6%, and industrials, sliding 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities opened slightly higher on Wednesday, the last trading day of May, as the NASDAQ composite stared down strong monthly gains.
The Dow Jones Industrials fell 69.93 points to open Wednesday at 21,059.54, with Johnson & Johnson gaining and providing one of the few bright spots. The 30-stock index was also on track to post its sixth positive month in seven.
The S&P 500 dropped 7.57 points to 2,405.34, with real estate leading advancers
The NASDAQ dipped 33.49 points to 6,169.70, but was up on the month 2.6% entering the session and was on track to record a seven-month winning streak, its longest since 2013.
In economic news, weekly mortgage applications fell 3.4% last week. Other data set for release Wednesday include pending home sales and the Federal Reserve's Beige Book.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note were unchanged, keeping yields at Wednesday’s 2.21%.
Oil prices sank $1.58 to $48.08 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices recovered $4.10 at $1,269.80 U.S. an ounce.
