Canada's main stock index doggedly fought their way toward the breakeven point midday Monday, having hit its lowest level in nearly a month after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on China, triggering a global rout in risky assets.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index came off its lows of the morning, but still trailed 78.47 points to greet noon hour EDT at 16,415.96
The Canadian dollar peeped ahead 0.04 cents to 74.35 cents
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Air Canada, which jumped $1.56, or 4.6%, to $35.18, after reporting a surprise quarterly adjusted profit and port-operator Westshore Terminals Investment Corp, which rose 28 cents, or 1.4%, to $20.92, after price target lifts from brokers.
Auto parts supplier Martinrea International fell 24 cents, or nearly 2%,, the most on the TSX, to $11.96.
The second biggest decliner was construction and engineering firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc, down 56 cents, or 1.9%, to $28.90.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slumbered 2.64 points to 603.78
All but three of the 12 Toronto subgroups were negative, as consumer discretionary stocks sank 0.9%, energy remained negative 0.8%, and financials slid 0.6%.
The three gainers were health-care, picking up 0.9%, gold, 0.4%, brighter, and real-estate, inching up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Monday after President Donald Trump said that the U.S. will hike tariffs on goods imported from China, but managed to recover a good chunk of those losses around late-morning trading.
The Dow Jones Industrials dipped 237.63 points to 26,267.32, having forfeited as much as 471 points during the morning chaos.
The S&P 500 sank 28.32 points, or 1%, to 2,917.32
The NASDAQ Composite index tumbled 84.85 points, or 1%, to 8,079.15
Google-parent Alphabet was up 0.1%, erasing an earlier decline of 1.5%. Dow-member Disney traded 0.5% higher after falling as much as 1.5%. McDonald’s and Chevron both traded higher as well.
Shares of Apple and Caterpillar dropped at least 1.7% each on fears of a trade war. Chipmakers were also hit hard with Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices both losing more than 2%. These stocks are heavily impacted by news on U.S-China trade because of the companies’ exposure to Chinese markets.
Trump said in a tweet Sunday afternoon that the current 10% levies on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods will rise to 25% on Friday. He also threatened to impose 25% tariffs on an additional $325 billion of Chinese goods "shortly."
Though trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing officials are set to resume on Wednesday, the president lamented that the progress is moving “too slowly” as China tries to re-negotiate terms of the deal.
The Wall Street Journal reported that China is considering cancelling its trade talks with the U.S. this week in light of Trump’s latest threats. Citing a source, the Journal said Beijing had been surprised by the new threats.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury gained sharply, lowering yields to 2.48% from Friday’s 2.53%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped 33 cents to $61.61 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices regained 40 cents to $1,281.70 U.S. an ounce.
