Equities in Canada’s markets edged up on Friday as commodity prices eased, while investors assessed the impact of a global tech outage that disrupted operations across businesses.
The TSX Composite Index gained 19.4 points to 22,746.16.
The Canadian dollar swooned 0.12 cents to 72.85 cents U.S.
Canada's benchmark index mimicked its U.S. counterpart's losses this week, after initial record closing highs.
Its materials sector was poised for another losing session as gold prices fell, but was set for a fourth straight weekly gain. Copper prices were also down at a more than three-month low.
The energy sector was in focus with the oil prices down, hurt by weak investor sentiment due to a firm dollar, mixed economic signals and fragile demand worries from China.
In corporate news, SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust announced it has priced an offering of $350 million Series AA senior unsecured debenture issue. Units gained 12 cents to $23.78.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada says retail sales decreased 0.8% to $66.1 billion in May. Sales were down in eight of nine subsectors, led by decreases at food and beverage retailers.,
The industrial product price index was unchanged in June and increased 2.8% year over year. The raw material price index declined 1.4% month over month in June and was up 7.5% year over year.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange sank 1.06 points, to 577.79.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups picked up strength, led by information technology, up 0.6%, while energy and consumer staples each grabbed 0.3%.
The five laggards were weighed most by gold, down 1%, communications, off 0.5%, and materials, trailing 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite were little changed on Friday as Wall Street looked toward to end of a week defined by rotation.
The Dow Jones Industrials surrendered 227.04 points to 40,437.98
The S&P 500 index dropped 4.54 points to 5,540.05.
The NASDAQ dipped 9.11 points to 17,862.12.
Those moves comes after stocks declined across the board on Thursday, with the Dow falling more than 500 points to snap a six-day winning streak. Despite Thursday’s broad selloff, a market rotation toward names viewed as bigger beneficiaries of lower interest rates, like small caps, still appears to be theme of the week.
The S&P 500 has dropped more than 1%, on pace for its worst week since April. The NASDAQ has slipped close to 3%, putting a six-week winning streak at risk. On the other hand, the Dow is more than 1% higher.
CrowdStrike tumbled more than 8% following a major information technology outage that impacted business around the world. The New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ both said trading did not appear impacted.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury waned, raising yields to 4.24% from Thursday’s 4.20%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slipped 32 cents at $82.50 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices flopped $52.40 to $2,404.
