Canada's main stock index opened lower Friday, amid a broader global selloff in technology shares after Broadcom warned of a slowdown in chip demand, and disappointing industrial data out of China dampened sentiment.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index decreased 30.19 points to begin Friday at 16,209.07
The Canadian dollar squeezed 0.22 cents up to 74.81 cents U.S.
CIBC raised the target price on Dollarama to $48.00 from $44.00. Dollarama shares slid 87 cents, or 1.9%, to $46.12
Cowen and Company raised the target price on Hudson's Bay Co. to $12.00 from $10.00. Bay shares inched up five cents to $9.39.
On the economic front, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported national home sales rose 1.9% month-over-month (m-o-m) in May, while actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was up 6.7% year-over-year (y-o-y).
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eked ahead 0.78 points to open the week’s last session at 590.02
All but three of the 12 Toronto subgroups were in the red in the first hour, with health-care losing 1.5%, while energy and information technology each down 0.6%
The three gainers were led by gold, up 1%, while utilities and materials crawled up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Friday as investors digested a drop in semiconductor shares alongside weak data out of China.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 97.21 points to 26,009.56, as Intel and Apple lagged.
The S&P 500 was down 9.82 points at 2,881.82
The NASDAQ Composite sank 49.17 points to 7,787.96.
Even so, the major U.S. stock indexes posted solid gains in the previous session, adding to this month’s sharp rally. The Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ were all up more than 5% entering Friday’s session.
Chipmakers fell broadly after weak quarterly results from Broadcom. The chipmaker posted weaker-than-expected revenue for the previous quarter and cut its guidance for 2019, citing "broad-based" demand weakness and the U.S. crackdown on Huawei.
Other semiconductor stocks also fell. Micron Technology, Advanced Micro Technology and Applied Materials all traded down more than 1.5% lower. Dow member Intel dropped 1.9%.
Economically speaking, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that retail sales rose 0.5% in May, below the 0.6% gain expected by economists. However, April retail sales were revised higher. May sales were also up 0.5% when excluding auto, gas building materials and food.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury gained a bit, lowering yields to 2.09% from Thursday’s 2.10%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices advanced seven cents to $52.35 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $10.60 at $1,354.30 U.S. an ounce.
