Equities in Canada’s financial capital fell on Thursday as financial and energy stocks declined, while the shares of Bombardier rose after the company won a multi-billion-dollar order for its CSeries passenger jets.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gave back 21.31 points from Wednesday’s closing reading to open Thursday at 13,866.35
The Canadian dollar regrouped 0.18 cents to 79.55 cents U.S.
Potash Corp of Saskatchewan , the world's biggest fertilizer company by capacity, cut its full-year profit forecast due to weak demand and lower prices.
Shares in Potash collapsed 83 cents, or 3.6%, to $22.26.
Bombardier announced on Thursday a much-anticipated order from Delta Air Lines for up to 125 of its CSeries passenger jets, throwing a lifeline to Bombardier, which also reported a quarterly loss.
Bombardier shares climbed nine cents, or 4.5%, to $2.10.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Valeant Pharmaceuticals International is expected to name four new directors as soon as Friday.
Valeant shares hiked $1.21, or 2.7%, to $45.33.
Barclays raised the target price on Cenovus Energy to $20.00 from $19.00, with an underweight rating.
Cenovus shares took on 13 cents to $19.31.
Barclays then cut the target price on Open Text Corp. to $71.00 from $78.00, with an overweight rating.
Open Text shares $1.10, or 1.6%, to $69.34.
BMO raised the price target on CGI Group to $64.00 from $63.00, with an outperform rating.
CGI shares dipped 52 cents to $58.82.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that average weekly earnings were $954.00 in February, up 0.3% from the previous month and up 0.4%, from 12 months earlier.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 0.78 points to 658.74
Seven of the 13 TSX subgroups were lower to start the day, primarily information technology, off 1.7%, financials, regressing 0.7%, and consumer discretionary issues, fading 0.4%.
The half-dozen laggards were led by metals and mining, gaining 2.5%, gold, up 1.7%, and materials, prospering 0.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded mostly lower Thursday, following sharp declines in the Nikkei 225 overnight after the Bank of Japan kept policy unchanged.
The Dow Jones Industrials slid 72.53 points to start Thursday at 17,969.02, with Goldman Sachs, United Technologies and DuPont having the most negative impact as most constituents declined.
The S&P 500 faded 0.43 points to 2,094.72, with materials leading seven sectors lower and information technology leading advancers.
The NASDAQ Composite Index recovered 9.86 points to 4,873, as shares of Facebook rose more than 10.5% to hit a fresh all-time high in intraday trade.
The social network reported quarterly earnings well above expectations on both the top and bottom line, helped by a sharp increase in mobile advertising revenue. The social media giant also proposed a new share structure.
In U.S. economic news, the first quarter U.S. GDP advance read was 0.5%, the slowest pace since the first quarter of 2014. Consumer spending increased at a 1.9% rate, the slowest since the first quarter of 2015 and down from the fourth quarter's 2.4% rate.
U.S. weekly jobless claims were 257,000.
The Bank of Japan maintained the pace of its asset purchase program and kept steady its 0.1% negative rate it applies to some deposits. The central bank also cut its inflation forecasts and again pushed back the timing for hitting its 2% price target by six months.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury were unchanged, keeping yields at Wednesday’s 1.86%.
Oil prices added 11 cents a barrel to $45.44 U.S.
Gold prices gained $10.76 to $1,256.59 U.S. an ounce.
