Equities in Toronto fell early Thursday, weighed down in part by energy stocks as crude prices weakened after the International Energy Agency (IEA) cut its 2020 forecast for oil demand due to coronavirus-led travel restrictions.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index cooled off 14.46 points to begin Thursday at 16,560.82
The Canadian dollar gained 0.2 cents to 75.76 cents U.S.
IEA warned that reduced air travel due to the pandemic would lower global oil demand this year by 8.1 million barrels per day.
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were software services provider Altus Group, which jumped $8.79, or 21.2%, to $50.30, and ECN Capital, which rose 50 cents, or 9.8%, to $5.60, after the companies reported their quarterly results.
Back to Altus, Scotiabank raised its target price to $45.00 from $43.00
Great Canadian Gaming fell $1.12, or 3.7%, the most on the TSX, to $29.13, after posting a quarterly loss of 57 cents per share.
The second biggest decliner was Brookfield Asset Management, down $1.07, or 2.4%, to $43.82m after it reported a loss of 43 cents per share in the quarter.
CIBC raised the price target on Boyd Group Services to $233.00 from $212.00. Boyd shares hopped $2.18, or 1%, to $217.58.
BMO raised the price target on Leon's Furniture to $17.00 from $14.00. Leon’s shares gathered five cents to $15.28.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange kept climbing 7.71 points, or 1.1%, to lead off Thursday at 733.42.
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly split between gainers and losers, with gold soaring 1.9%, materials exploding 1.5%, and health-care haler by 0.7%.
The half-dozen laggards were burdened mostly communications, down 0.8%, financials, sliding 0.5%, and utilities off 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks traded slightly lower on Thursday as the S&P 500 traded just below a record high and traders digested better-than-expected unemployment data.
The Dow Jones Industrials retreated 55.06 points to 27,921.78.
The S&P 500 inched up 1.21 points, or 1.4%, to 3,381.56
The NASDAQ jumped 90.21 points to start Thursday at 11,102.45.
Cisco Systems dropped more than 10% on the back of disappointing earnings guidance to lead the Dow lower. Stocks of companies that would benefit from the economy reopening struggled as well. Gap dipped 2.4%. American Airlines and Southwest slid 1.3%. Meanwhile, shares of Apple gained 1%. Facebook and Amazon were also higher.
Initial weekly jobless claims fell to 963,000, the U.S. Labor Department said. That’s below a Dow Jones estimate of 1.1 million. It was also the first time since late March that jobless claims came in below one million.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury demurred, raising yields to 0.68% from Wednesday’s 0.67%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions
Oil prices gained 0.05 cents to $42.62 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices regained $8.20 to $1,957.20 U.S. an ounce.
