Canada's main stock index gave way Thursday as optimism of a revised North American Free Trade Agreement ran out of steam during negotiators’ second day of talks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index listed lower by 36.63 points to finish Thursday at 16,100.94
The Canadian dollar recovered 0.19 cents to 76.09 cents.
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Wednesday the two countries made progress in negotiations and officials would work together to flesh out areas for further discussion.
Energy stocks provided the biggest weight on the TSX, as Suncor Energy retreated $1.08, or 2.1%, to $51.65, while Canadian Natural Resources tumbled 78 cents, or 1.8%, to $43.07.
Also among the biggest drags to the main index was the health-care sector, weighed down by a decline in cannabis companies.
Aurora Cannabis fell 46 cents, or 5.3%, to $8.22, while Canopy Growth was down $2.21, or 3.2%, to $66.26
In the tech sector, BlackBerry docked 22 cents to 1.7%, to $12.93, while Shopify plummeted $7.77, or 4.2%, to $176.62.
Consumer staples, however, had a fine day. Alimentation Couche-Tard rose $2.89, or 4.6%, to $66.04, and was among the biggest gainers, as the world's second-biggest convenience store operator reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit.
Restaurant Brands International found its way $1.02 higher, or 1.4%, to $74.65.
Industrials were also positive, as Canadian Pacific Railway chugged along 21 cents to $274.27, while Canadian National surged 24 cents to $114.20.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reports municipalities issued $8.2 billion worth of building permits in July, down 0.1% from June. The decrease was mainly attributable to lower construction intentions in British Columbia.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 3.59 points to 709.56
The 12 subgroups were evenly split by the closing bell, as energy dropped 1.9%, information technology dumped 1.4%, and health-care withered 1.2%
The half-dozen gainers were led by consumer staples, up 1.1%, while industrial and real-estate each climbed 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks mostly fell on Thursday as tech shares added to steep losses seen in the previous session while global trade fears lingered.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered 20.88 points to 25,995.87
The S&P 500 dropped 10.55 points to 2,878.05, however, as tech fell 1%.
The NASDAQ slipped 72.45 points to 7,922.73, as Amazon doffed 1.8% and Apple fell 1.7%. The index is on track to fall 2.5% for the week and has posted three straight days of losses.
Facebook shares also declined 2.8% on Thursday, while Alphabet dropped 1.3%.
Chipmakers were among the worst-performing tech stocks. Micron Technology dropped 10%, while Lam Research chucked 6.7% and Applied Materials fell 5.3%. These stocks fell after a Morgan Stanley analyst and an executive at KLA-Tencor issued demand warnings for the semiconductor space.
Tech shares are up more than 16% this year, outperforming the broader market. However, they are down more than 2% this week. On Wednesday, they fell 1.5%.
Private companies added 163,000 jobs last month, according to ADP and Moody's Analytics. Economists polled by Reuters expected a gain of 190,000. The report comes ahead of the U.S. government's non-farm payrolls report, set for release Friday.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury were slightly higher, dropping yields to 2.88% from Wednesday’s 2.9%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices removed 80 cents to $67.92 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices added $4.30 to $1,205.60
