Equities in Canada’s largest market dipped on Monday after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned abruptly ahead of the mid-term budget, while investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s rate decision later this week.
The TSX dropped 74.82 points in the first hour Monday to 25,199.48, after last week’s drop of 1.6%
The Canadian dollar ditched 0.06 cents to 70.23 cents U.S.
Freeland quit just hours before she was due to present a fall economic update to parliament, a document widely expected to show the Liberal government had run up a much larger 2023/24 budget deficit than planned.
“Her reference to – “costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment” – isn’t giving investors confidence in the government’s response to proposed 25% tariffs from the Trump administration,” said one financial industry official.
In corporate news, Barrick Gold will suspend operations in Mali if gold shipments continue to be blocked, the company said, as it struggles to reach agreement with authorities on a new mining code in the West African country. Barrick shares gave back 41 cents, or 1.7%, to $23.49.
BlackBerry soared $5.57, or 14.9%, to $4.40, after it reached an agreement to sell its Cylance business to Arctic Wolf.
In other economic news, figures released Monday by the Canadian Real Estate Association showed national home sales rose 2.8% month-over-month. Actual (not seasonally-adjusted) monthly activity came in 26% above November 2023.
Moreover, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported home sales totaling 252,400 in November, compared to 242,200 in the same month last year.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid six points, or 1%, to 601.84
The 12 TSX subgroups were divided evenly, with communications stumbling 2.2%, energy sliding 1.3%, and materials off 0.6%.
The half-dozen gainers were led by real-estate eking up 0.4%, while information technology and health-care each gained 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 rose slightly on Monday as investors awaited a key Federal Reserve meeting slated for this week.
The Dow Jones Industrial index regained 47.81 points to begin the week at 43,875.57, hoping to end its losing streak of seven straight sessions.
The much-broader index recovered 24.28 points to 6,075.77
The tech-heavy NASDAQ jumped 152.06 points to 20,078.78.
The broad market index traded 0.3% higher, and the NASDAQ advanced 0.5%. The Dow hovered around the flatline. The Dow entered the session riding a seven-day losing streak. Noticeably absent from the Nasdaq’s trend higher was artificial intelligence darling Nvidia, which pulled back 2%. Shares of Apple, Tesla and Google-parent Alphabet all traded marginally higher.
The Fed set to begin its two-day policy meeting Tuesday. It’s expected to cut rates by a quarter-point at its conclusion on Wednesday. The key for investors will be forward guidance on future policy moves.
The stock market is coming off a sluggish week. The Dow lost 1.8% last week and has lost ground in each of the last seven sessions. The S&P 500 dipped 0.6%, and has retreated in four of the past five sessions. The NASDAQ outperformed, grinding out a gain of 0.3% for the week.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury poked up, lowering yields to 4.38% from Friday’s 4.39%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped 20 cents to $71.09 U.S. a barrel.
Prices for gold settled $4.40 an ounce to $2,681.40 U.S.