“After you have a blowout day like you did yesterday and then you had eight days in a row prior to that of dropping, one has to wonder if it is a dead-cat bounce or one has to wonder if there is follow-through, and so I can understand the market being tentative today”, said Barry Schwartz, portfolio manager at Baskin Financial Services.
Advertisement
At mid-afternoon, the S&P/TSX composite index was down 18.61 points at 13,298.91, led by a big retreat among gold miners as the price of bullion continued to fall lower.
HNZ Group stock dropped to $10 in early trading on the TSX, representing a 28 per cent decline from Friday’s close – the lowest level since February 2010.
And Financials advanced 1.55 percent, wiping off the losses in the last week, as banks stocks bounced up with Royal Bank of Canada up 1.73 percent to 75.22 Canadian dollars and Toronto-Dominion Bank moving higher 1.09 percent to 53.95 Canadian dollars.
In other economic news, the Federal Reserve said that USA manufacturing output rose 0.4 per cent in October, the first gain in three months, as factories cranked out more steel, cars and computers.
Energy, the biggest gainer in the TSX, jumped 4.32 percent when the light, sweet crude for December delivery moved up 1 USA dollars to settle at 41.74 dollars a barrel on the NY Mercantile Exchange on Monday. The overall materials group lost 2.9 percent.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals global Inc fell 4.3 percent to C$93.57 after Morgan Stanley cut its earnings estimates and price target for the stock.
Advertisement
The December contract for natural gas was up 1.4 cents at US$2.375. Gold futures fell 0.7 percent to $1,075.8 an ounce.
