Equities in Canada’s largest centre opened lower on Friday as losses in metal prices brought down mining and energy shares, while investors assessed the latest batch of economic data for Bank of Canada's interest-rate path.
The TSX Composite Index doffed 25.79 points to open Friday at 21,555.56.
The Canadian dollar weakened 0.06 cents to 73.01 cents U.S.
In corporate news, food and beverage company Lassonde Industries announced an agreement to acquire U.S.-based specialty food manufacturer Zidian Group for $235 million. Lassonde shares hiked $2.30, or 1.6%, to $142.44.
On the economic docket, retail trade in this country increased 0.7% to $66.8 billion in April. The Industrial Product Price Index was unchanged month over month in May and rose 1.8% on a yearly basis. The Raw Materials Price Index declined 1.0% month over month in May and increased 7.6% year over year.
Housing prices rose 0.2% in April, exactly the same rate of increase as April 2023.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 6.69 points to 565.74.
Seven of the 12 subgroups were in the red in the first hour, weighed most by materials, down 1.6%, gold, losing 1.3%, and health-care ailing 0.9%.
The five gainers were led by consumer staples, up 0.7%, consumer discretionary stocks, better by 0.6%, and utilities, clicking 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 fell slightly Friday after the broad market benchmark briefly climbed above 5,500 for the first time, as Nvidia shares slipped for a second day.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 43.41 points to 39,178.17.
The much-broader index dumped 11.81 points to 5,461.36.
The NASDAQ faded 56.52 points, to 17,665.07.
The S&P 500 is coming off a losing session after hitting an intraday record of 5,505.53, but headed for a 0.6% weekly advance. The NASDAQ is tracking for a 0.1% weekly loss, while the Dow is the outperformer, touting a 1.6% week-to-date rise.
Nvidia shares were down more than 2% in early trading. On Thursday, the stock hit an all-time high before closing more than 3% lower. Nonetheless, the chipmaker is still up more than 150% year to date, and briefly beat Microsoft as the most valuable public company on Tuesday.
Trading on Friday could also be more volatile than normal due to triple witching, the expiration of stock options, stock index options and stock index futures options.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury slipped a bit, raising yields to 4.27% from Thursday’s 4.26%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 35 cents to $81.64 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost $20.50 to $2,348.50
