Equities in Canada’s largest market opened lower on Monday as the energy sector lagged, and China’s move to impose additional duties on U.S. products revived global trade war concerns.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index opened the week and the month of April down 77.86 points to 15,289.43
The Canadian dollar gained 0.05 cents at 77.64 cents U.S.
Printer Transcontinental Inc said it would buy U.S.-based plastics packager Coveris Americas for $1.32 billion.
Transcontinental shares jumped $1.65, or 6.5%, to $27.10.
Goldcorp made the first gold deposit on Tradewind Markets' new digitized trading platform, the companies said on Thursday, with 3,000 ounces of bullion from its Red Lake mine complex in Ontario.
Goldcorp eked up six cents to $17.85.
Toronto Dominion Bank Chief Executive Bharat Masrani said on Thursday the bank's commercial clients were nervous about the outcome of talks to update the North American Free Trade Agreement.
TD shares ducked back 51 cents to $72.60.
Eight Capital raised the price target on Hudbay Minerals to $16.00 from $15.50. Hudbay shares gave back eight cents to $9.04.
TD Securities cut the price target on Prometic Life Sciences to $2.00 from $3.50. Prometic shares fell nine cents, or 10.2%, to 79 cents.
CIBC cut the price target on Tidewater Midstream and Infrastructure to $2.35 from $2.45. Tidewater lost a penny to $1.38.
China has slapped extra tariffs of up to 25% on 128 U.S. products including frozen pork, as well as wine and certain fruits and nuts, in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.
In the economic docket, the IHS Markit Purchasing Managers Index registered 55.7 in March, little changed from 55.6 in February and above the neutral 50.0 threshold for the 25th consecutive month.
Markit said the headline PMI reading in March was supported by a robust and accelerated rise in production volumes across the manufacturing sector.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 2.78 points to 793.89
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups sagged in the first hour of trade, with health-care down 2.2%, information technology settling 0.9%, and energy off 0.8%.
The three gainers were gold, brighter 0.9%, while materials and utilities each advanced 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Monday, the first trading day of the month, as concerns of a trade war brewing between the U.S. and China persisted.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 106.26 points to 23,996.85, with a decline in Wal-Mart offsetting strong gains in UnitedHealth.
The S&P 500 dumped 23.15 points to 2,617.72, with consumer discretionary and tech both falling more than 1%.
The NASDAQ Composite index faded 100.01 points, or 1.4%, to 6,963.43
Also weighing on investor sentiment Monday was a decline in Amazon. The e-commerce giant's stock fell 4% after Trump tweeted on Saturday that Amazon was scamming the U.S. Postal Service, adding the service loses "billions of dollars" delivering packages for the e-commerce giant.
Amazon has been one of the best-performing stocks over the past year, rising nearly 64% in that time period.
Tech shares continued to be under pressure on Monday, with shares of Facebook, Netflix and Alphabet all trading lower. Last month, concerns over how Facebook handles data collected from its users sent the entire sector lower. Facebook dropped 10.4% in March.
Elsewhere in corporate news, Humana shares jumped 6% following reports that Walmart was interested in acquiring the health insurer.
Though discussions remain in early stages, sources told the media that Wal-Mart is interested in strengthening its existing relationship with Humana amid a rush of deal speculation in the industry.
In economic news, the IHS Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI rose to 55.6 in March, its highest level since 2015. Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index reached 59.3 last month. Economists expected the number to hit 60.0.
China announced overnight Monday it had implemented tariffs on 128 types of U.S. imports. The goods hit with the charges the list of products proposed by Beijing in March and comes as a direct response to President Donald Trump signing off on tariffs on imported steel and aluminum last month. China said in March that those goods had an import value of $3 billion in 2017.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell back, raising yields to 2.76% from Thursday’s 2.74%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lost $1.02 a barrel at $63.92 U.S.
Gold prices gained $10.60 to $1,337.60 U.S. an ounce.
