Equities in Toronto edged lower on Monday as investors remained cautious ahead of U.S. economic data and the Bank of Canada’s monetary policy decision this week, while gains in materials stocks limited declines.
The TSX Composite climbed to within 4.34 points of breakeven to pause for lunch Monday at 21,458.01.
The Canadian dollar was unchanged at 73.73 cents U.S.
Declines on the TSX were led by the health-care stocks. Pot firm Tilray Brands lost nine cents, or 3.8%, the biggest decline among healthcare stocks, to $2.27.
Metal miners Torex Gold Resources jumped 78 cents, or 5.2%, to $15.93, while First Quantum Minerals rose 36 cents, or 2.8%, to $13.26.
Shares of crypto miners Hut 8 lost 49 cents, or 4%, to $11.63, and Bitfarms tumbled 39 cents, or 9.9%, to $3.57, after Bitcoin bounced beyond $65,000.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gathered 4.66 points to 576.26.
All but three of the 12 subgroups remained in the red midday, with health-care behind 1.5%, while communications faded 0.9%, and utilities slid 0.6%.
The three gainers were gold, barreling ahead 3.1%, materials, up 1.6%, and financials gaining 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated Monday as traders took a breather from a rally that brought the major U.S. stock benchmarks to record highs.
The 30-stock index lost 79.51 points to move into noon hour Monday at 39,007.87.
The S&P 500 inched down 2.57 points to 5,134.51.
The NASDAQ faded 43.28 points to 16,231.67.
Apple fell more than 2% after getting hit with a European Union antitrust fine of nearly $2 billion. The EU’s executive arm said the technology giant misused its power as a market dominator in the music streaming distribution space.
Lyft shares climbed around 5% on the back of an upgrade to outperform from sector perform by RBC. Super Micro Computer hiked 25%, and Deckers Outdoor rallied more than 2%, following the S&P Dow Jones Indices announcement that the pair will join the S&P 500 later this month.
JetBlue rose more than 1%, while Spirit Airlines tumbled more than 14%. The airlines said Monday that they would end plans to combine, weeks after losing a federal antitrust lawsuit that jeopardized the $3.8-billion deal.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury stumbled, raising yields to 4.23% from Friday’s 4.18%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped 92 cents to $79.05 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices surged $31.90 to $2,127.60.