Toronto market falls, reversing earlier energy gains stemming from Trump tweet

FILE: The Old Toronto Stock Exchange on Bay Street (Photo By Halava – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0)

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index lost some ground in Tuesday trading, reversing morning gains in the energy sector helped by a U.S. presidential tweet.

President Donald Trump talked down the U.S. dollar in the morning by comments he directed towards the Federal Reserve against its interest rate hikes, said Craig Jerusalim, portfolio manager at CIBC Asset Management.

“The net effect was a weaker U.S. dollar, which resulted in higher commodity prices, specifically oil and base metals and to a lesser extent gold, as well as higher overall stock prices,” he said in an interview.

By afternoon, several sectors saw prices decrease, including financials ahead of Canadian banks beginning this week to report quarterly results. Jerusalim said expectations are that they will report growth, signalling that current valuations are appealing.

Consumer staples were down 0.42 per cent, led by a nearly two-per-cent decline by Metro Inc. and lower stock prices for Premium Brands, Saputo Inc. and George Weston.

Information technology, consumer discretionary, utilities, telecom and real estate were also down.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed off 34.06 points at 16,296.97 after hitting an intraday high of 16,398.63, with 213.35 million shares traded.

The Canadian market was led by 2.26 per cent gain in the health-care sector led by cannabis company Canopy Growth Corp as well as ProMetic Life Sciences.

Industrials rose largely on the back of an 8.3 per cent gain by Air Canada. That followed an agreement by its consortium to acquire the Aeroplan loyalty program from Aimia Inc. for $450 million in cash and assuming the approximately $1.9-billion liability associated with Aeroplan miles customers have accumulated.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 63.60 points at 25,822.29. The S&P 500 index was up 5.91 points at 2,862.96, while the Nasdaq composite was up 38.17 points at 7,859.17.

The S&P 500 bull market continued, coming just short of an all-time high of 2,872 set on Jan. 26.

“Just because it is one of longest cycles doesn’t mean it will end,” Jerusalim added, noting that Australia has enjoyed 25 years of market expansion.

The Canadian dollar averaged 76.71 cents US, up 0.17 of a US cent.

The October crude oil contract was up 42 cents at US$65.84 per barrel and the September natural gas contract was up 3.9 cents at US$2.98 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was up US$5.40 at US$1,200 an ounce and the September copper contract was up 2.7 cents at US$2.70 a pound.