Canada's main stock index regained some lost ground by midday Monday from record highs in the previous session on weakness in health-care stocks fueled by pot producers and dour economic data from China.
The TSX Composite regained 31.33 points by noon hour to 20,959.43.
The Canadian dollar improved 0.07 cents to 80.89 cents U.S.
Leading declines on the healthcare sub-sector index were pot producers Tilray down 1.9%, and Canopy Growth
off 1.8%.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reported foreign investors acquired $26.3 billion of Canadian securities in August, mainly in the form of debt securities. At the same time, Canadian investors resumed their purchases of foreign securities, adding $15.2 billion worth to their portfolios in August.
What’s more, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation told investors housing starts decreased to 251,200 units in September from 262,800 units in August.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's newest minority government is set to impose higher taxes on Canadians, which will help fund some campaign promises but are not broad enough to also start paying down the country's record levels of debt, leaving Canada vulnerable to the next economic crisis.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eked higher 3.5 points to 941.17.
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower Monday morning, with health-care skidding 1%, consumer discretionary and gold stocks each off 0.4%.
The three gainers proved to be information technology and industrials, each up 0.4%, and financials, up 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rebounded on Monday, after opening lower, as investors bet on a continuation of strong earnings reports from major companies. Tesla and Netflix gained ahead of third-quarter reports later this week.
The Dow Jones Industrials rose to within 12.97 points of breakeven to 35,281.79.
The S&P 500 recovered 10.19 points to 4,481.56.
The NASDAQ Composite gained 69.79 points to 14,967.13.
So far 41 S&P 500 components have reported third-quarter results, with 80% of them topping EPS expectations, according to data from
FactSet. Taking into account the companies that have already reported and estimates for the rest, third-quarter profit growth will total 30%, the third highest quarterly growth rate for S&P 500 companies since 2010.
A number of big names are set to report in the week ahead, including Netflix, Johnson & Johnson, United Airlines and Procter & Gamble on Tuesday. Tesla, Verizon and IBM are among the other names on deck for the week.
Disney shares lost more than 3% after Barclays downgraded the stock and predicted streaming subscriber growth will slow.
A few things dented sentiment on Monday. Overnight, China reported gross domestic product that disappointed, coming in at 4.9% annual growth in the third quarter. That was short of the 5.3% growth expected by economists polled by Reuters. Industrial production in China last month also fell short of expectations.
U.S. industrial production declined in September too, falling almost 1.28% to its lowest level since February, when it fell 3.02%.
Prices for 10-year Treasurys lost some ground, raising yields to 1.60% from Friday’s 1.58 %. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices picked up nine cents to $82.37 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices settled $2.40 to $1,765.90 U.S. an ounce.
