Equities in Canada’s largest centre opened lower on Wednesday, weighed down by falling oil prices and escalating trade tensions between the United States and China, with a rate hike by the Bank of Canada also in focus.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index removed 87.45 points from Tuesday’s all-time record close, to begin the mid-week session at 16,461.27
The Canadian dollar restored 0.06 cents at 76.16 cents U.S.
Canaccord Genuity raised the target price on Canopy Growth Corp. to $34.00 from $32.00.
Canopy shares increased in price 26 cents to $38.36.
Barclays raised the rating on Husky Energy to overweight from equal weight. Husky shares gained 11 cents to $21.28
Barclays raised the rating on Imperial Oil to equal weight from underweight. Imperial shares perked 53 cents, or 1.2%, to $44.67.
On the economic docket, the Bank of Canada – to no one’s surprise -- increased its target for the overnight rate to 1.5%. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1.75% and the deposit rate is 1.25%
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gave back 4.68 points to 735.66
All 12 TSX subgroups were lower in the first hour, led by materials, suffering 1.3%, health-care, ailing 1.2%, and energy, failing 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks opened sharply lower on Wednesday as a trade war between the U.S. and other major economies intensified, with the Trump administration unveiling new tariffs on Chinese goods.
The Dow Jones Industrials dropped 141.93 points to 24,777.73, with Caterpillar as the biggest decliner.
The S&P 500 dipped 10.57 points to 2,783.27, as energy, materials and industrials all fell more than 1%.
The NASDAQ lost 17.57 points to 7,741.63
Shares of Boeing and Caterpillar — two companies with high overseas revenue exposure — fell more than 1% each. Chipmakers also pulled back as Nvidia, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices all dropped more than 0.5%.
Corporate earnings are expected to have risen 20% in the second quarter. The earnings season got under way this week with PepsiCo reporting better-than-expected earnings on Tuesday. J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo are all scheduled to report later this week.
Shares of drug makers also fell after Pfizer said it will postpone price increases after a conversation with the president. Pfizer fell 0.4% before the bell, while Biogen dropped 1.4%. Merck also declined 0.5%
President Donald Trump's administration published late Tuesday a list of 10% duties on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. The tariffs won’t come into effect immediately, but rather face a review process, with hearings taking place in mid-to-late August.
Trump is currently in Brussels attending a two-day NATO summit. During the first leg of his European trip, the U.S. incumbent has already made headlines by stating that "Germany is totally controlled by Russia," describing how a number of "inappropriate" oil and gas deals had given Moscow too much influence over Berlin.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained ground, lowering yields to 2.86% from Tuesday 2.87%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices removed 67 cents to $73.44 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost four dollars to $1,251.40 U.S. an ounce.
