Canada’s resource-heavy main index fell on Monday, dragged down by energy and material stocks, while investors awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision due later in the week.
The TSX lost 25.09 points to break for lunch Monday at 19,866.97, off its lows of the morning.
The Canadian dollar handed back 0.16 cents to 74.82 cents U.S.
Global miner Glencore offered Teck Resources to buy its steelmaking coal business as a standalone unit, after the Canadian miner twice rebuffed its $22.5- billion offer to combine the two companies. Teck shares lost 77 cents, or 1.4%, to $55.95 by noon hour.
Among individual movers, Methanex slid 7.7% to a more than five-month low after Scotiabank downgraded the methanol supplier to “sector perform” from “sector outperform” and trimmed its price target on the stock. Methanex shares tumbled $3.91, or 6.8%, to $53.95.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 3.2 points to 613.52.
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower by lunch time, with energy dipping 1.7%, real-estate skidding 0.5%, and utilities off 0.3%.
The three gainers proved to be information technology, jumping 1.8%, while consumer discretionary stocks took on 0.9%, and health-care advanced 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose Monday as traders hope the Federal Reserve will skip hiking rates when the central bank decides on policy Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrials stayed above water 39.9 points to 33,916,68.
The S&P 500 picked up 13.31 points to 4,312.07. Monday’s moves put the S&P 500 back above 4,300, near its highest level since August.
The NASDAQ index grabbed 94.31 points to 13,353,45.
Markets have come to expect that the Fed will skip another rate increase at this week’s meeting, with traders Monday morning pricing in a 74% chance that there will be no hike.
The central bank will ultimately decide to skip a rate hike for June, according to experts, who add the Fed likely isn’t done raising rates overall, however.
Evercore ISI upgraded AutoZone to outperform from in line on Monday, saying it sees the stock’s 6% decline since its May 23 earnings report as an attractive entry point. The Wall Street firm also raised its price target to $2,700 from $2,640, suggesting more than 14% upside from Friday’s close.
Shares for cruise company Carnival were up nearly 10% Monday following an upgrade from JPMorgan to overweight from neutral.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury lost ground, raising yields to 3.78% from Wednesday’s 3.74%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slid $2.35 to $67.82 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices shed six dollars to $1,971.20 U.S. an ounce.