Stocks in Canada’s largest centre stumbled from initial gains Wednesday, as strength in energy was counteracted by losses in the other resource areas.
The TSX gave up 79.22 points to open the shop Wednesday at 18,342.88.
The Canadian dollar was unchanged at 79.14 cents U.S.
The Brazilian unit of Spanish telecom Telefonica SA said on Tuesday it had agreed with Canadian pension fund CDPQ to create a joint venture to develop a "neutral and independent" wholesale fiber optic network in Brazil.
Credit Suisse raised the rating on Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to neutral from underperform. CIBC shares gained 58 cents to $120.55.
Credit Suisse raised the target price on Royal Bank of Canada to $118.00 from $115.00. Shares in the country’s biggest bank took on 15 cents to $109.85.
Scotiabank cut the price target on George Weston Ltd to $115.00 from $117.00. Weston shares deducted 16 cents to $96.43.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada said January rang in 2021 with a record high total value of building permits issued, rising 8.2% to $9.9 billion and surpassing the previous record of $9.6 billion set in April 2019. These gains were driven primarily by the residential sector in January.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slouched 8.72 points to 1,019.03.
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups pointed downward in the first hour, with gold dulling in price 3%, materials weaker by 2.2%, and information technology 2.1% to the bad.
The three gainers were energy, picking up 2.2%, consumer discretionary, better by 0.9%, and financials, up 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Tech stocks dragged down the S&P 500 Wednesday amid rising bond yields, while names tied to an economic recovery provided the market with some support.
The Dow Jones Industrials let go of 46 points to begin Wednesday at 31,345.52, supported by a 3% jump in Boeing shares.
The S&P 500 demurred 28.98 points to 3,841.31. The energy sector rose 2%.
The NASDAQ Composite dumped 214.6 points, or 1.6%, to 13,144.18.
President Joe Biden said late Tuesday that the U.S. will have a large enough supply of coronavirus vaccines to vaccinate every adult in the nation by the end of May. That would be two months ahead of schedule. The vaccine rollout is seen as key part in getting Americans back to work and for the economy to recover.
Growing optimism over the vaccine rollout sparked a rally in cyclical stocks and reopening plays. American Airlines popped 4%, while C On the data front, private companies added 117,000 new jobs in February, according to a report Wednesday from payroll processing firm ADP.
Economists polled by Dow Jones expect 225,000 private jobs were added last month.
Meanwhile, the pace of growth in the services side of the U.S. economy decelerated in February. The Institute for Supply Management Non-Manufacturing Index showed a reading of 55.3 for last month, down 3.4 percentage points from January and below the 58.7 Dow Jones estimate.
Prices for 10-Year Treasurys thundered lower, raising yields to 1.49% from Tuesday’s 1.41%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices jumped $1.17 to $60.92 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dropped $22.30 to $1,711.30
