Canada's main stock index opened lower on Thursday as gains in energy shares on the back of higher oil prices offset losses in mining stocks, while Lithium Americas jumped on buying Argentina-focused Millennial Lithium.
The S&P/TSX Composite toppled 78.78 points to open Thursday at 21,574.24.
The Canadian dollar dumped 0.17 cents at 79.12 cents U.S.
The deal for Millennial involves $400 million in stock and cash, eclipsing an offer from China's Contemporary Amperex Technology. Lithium Americas shares grabbed $1.87, or 4.5%, to $43.44.
Credit Suisse raised the rating on Atco Ltd. to outperform from neutral. Atco shares gained $1.04, or 2.5%, to $42.43.
Scotiabank raised the price target on Fairfax Financial Holdings to $790 from $775. Shares in Fairfax backtracked $6.01, or 1%, to $573.99.
Scotiabank cut the rating on Goodfood Market to sector perform from outperform. Goodfood shares gave back 31 cents, or 5.9%, to $4.99.
Desjardins Securities raised the target price Loblaw Companies to $105.00 from $88.00. Loblaw shares gained 29 cents to $97.37.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported foreign investment in Canadian securities totaled $20.0 billion in September, led by acquisitions of Canadian corporate debt securities. Meanwhile, Canadian investment in foreign securities reached $17.2 billion, mainly purchases of U.S. shares.
Leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico are set to agree to new methane curbs and COVID-19 vaccine donations when they meet for the first time in five years on Thursday, according to senior Biden administration officials.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange docked 18.73 points, or 1.9%, to 986.93
All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower, with health-care plunging 5.8%, while gold stumbled 1%, and materials were off 0.9%.
The two gainers were real-estate, inching up 0.2%, and utilities, up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks slipped on Thursday despite a continuation of strong earnings reports from Nvidia, Macy’s and Kohl’s.
The Dow Jones Industrials declined 197.20 points to 35,733.85 mid-morning Thursday.
The S&P 500 slipped 8.15 points to 4,680.52.
The NASDAQ Composite retreated 34.69 points to 15,886.88.
Trading has been choppy this week with the major averages mostly wavering around the flat line, but the S&P and NASDAQ are still on track for a positive week and are sitting less than 1% from their records. The Dow is 1.8% from its record.
Nvidia shares advanced nearly 10% after beating on the top and bottom lines of its quarterly results and issuing a bullish revenue forecast for the current quarter ending in January. The chipmaker saw a 55% gain in data center sales from the same period a year ago 42% increase in gaming, its biggest market.
Those gains helped lift other chip stocks trading. Advanced Micro Devices gained more than 4%. Qualcomm and Micron Technology added about 2%. Separately, GlobalFoundries saw a big pop after revealing it entered a partnership with Ford to help the automaker increase its chip supply. It was last about 4% higher.
Retail continued its big earnings week. Shares of Macy’s and Kohl’s kicked the day off smashing quarterly profit and revenue estimates, much like their peers who reported earlier in the week.
Macy’s said same-store sales grew 35.6% and digital sales increased by 19%. It also teased the launch of a digital marketplace next year, and said 41% of its 4.4 million new customers in the quarter came through the digital channel. The company’s shares jumped almost 20%.
Kohl’s similarly saw gains in same-store sales growth and digital. Its shares added more than 6%.
Elsewhere, Deere saw its shares rise more than 2% after it came to a resolution with workers who had been on strike since Oct. 14.
Dow component Boeing also saw its shares rise another 1% following an upgrade from JPMorgan, which said the aerospace giant has significant upside as it clears up several issues that have dogged the company.
Going in the other direction, Cisco Systems fell 8% due to weaker revenue guidance and a revenue miss. Kraft Heinz shares also dropped more than 3% after the company announced a secondary offering of common stock.
Initial filings for unemployment insurance fell slightly to 268,000 for the week ending Nov. 13, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That was the lowest level since March 2020, and the seventh straight weekly decline. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected them to have fallen to 260,000, compared to the previous week’s adjusted 269,000 claims.
Prices for 10-year Treasurys were static, keeping yields at Wednesday’s 1.59%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices declined 22 cents to $78.14 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices fell eight dollars to $1,862.20 U.S. an ounce.
