Canada's main stock index fell at open on Friday, after energy shares plunged as oil prices were on track to halt their seven-week bull run.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index settled 44.55 to open for business Friday at 16,531.55
The Canadian dollar nudged up 0.13 cents at 74.31 cents U.S.
Saputo has reportedly purchased the Australian cheese business of Japan's Kirin Holdings for about $179 million. Saputo shares declined 25 cents to $45.55.
The outgoing chief executive of Suncor Energy on Thursday urged the new Alberta government to find a way out of mandatory oil production cuts that were imposed this year to help boost crude prices. Suncor stock lost 61 cents, or 1.4%, to $44.10.
CIBC raised the price target on CGI Inc. to $100.00 from $92.00. CGI docked 57 cents to $95.43.
RBC raised the price target on Canadian Utilities to $37.00 from $35.00. CU stock climbed 23 cents to $37.08.
Morgan Stanley cut the price target on Rogers Communications to $71.00 from $76.00. Rogers inched up a nickel to $66.82.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange regained 0.63 points to 608.87
Eight of the 12 Toronto subgroups were negative in the first hour, as energy sank 1.6%, consumer staples dipped 0.6%, and industrials slipped 0.5%
The four gainers were co-led by health-care and gold, each up 1.3%, and materials, stronger by 1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Friday as investors weighed better-than-expected economic data against a mixed batch of quarterly earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrials retreated 32.78 points to 26,429.30
The S&P 500 doffed 1.32 points to 2,924.85. The NASDAQ Composite dipped 24.04 to 8,094.64
Dow member Exxon fell more than 2% after reporting quarterly earnings per share that badly missed analyst expectations. The company’s results were dragged down by poor performances in its refining and chemicals businesses.
Intel, another Dow component, fell more than 8% after the company issued light revenue guidance for the year.
Those results overshadowed stronger-than-expected numbers from Companies like Amazon and Ford Motor.
Amazon shares traded 1% higher after results topped expectations on Thursday and Wall Street analysts trumpeted its announced push to one-day delivery for Prime members.
Ford Motor, meanwhile, jumped more than 8% after issuing better-than-forecast quarterly numbers, which were driven by strong truck and SUV sales in North America.
Other companies that reported between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning include, Mattel, Starbucks and American Airlines.
On the macroeconomic calendar, the U.S. Commerce Department revealed Friday that first-quarter gross domestic product was 3.2%, topping the consensus economist estimate of 2.5%, according to Dow Jones. An increase in exports drove the increase. The better-than-expected print was driven by a rise in exports.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury were marginally down, raising yields to 2.50% from Thursday’s 2.54%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slid $1.88 to $63.33 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices spiked $8.60 to $1,288.30 U.S. an ounce.
