Canadian stocks lost ground late Thursday morning, weighed by health stocks, as cautious investors assessed a spate of corporate earnings and looked for potential trade deals ahead of the Friday tariff deadline.
The TSX Composite Index ran out of octane as the morning wore on and lost 55.06 points to move into Thursday afternoon at 27,314.90.
The Canadian dollar shed 0.07 cents at 72.26 cents U.S.
On the economic slate, real gross domestic product (GDP) edged down 0.1% in May for the second consecutive month, as goods-producing industries declined while services-producing industries were essentially unchanged.
Elsewhere, payroll employment numbers increased by 15,300 (+0.1%) in May, after edging up 14,600 (+0.1%) in April. On a year-over-year basis, payroll employment was up 43,300 (+0.2%) in May.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange edged ahead 0.92 points to 771.05.
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower by noon EDT, weighed most by health-care, sliding 2.6%, energy stocks, settling 1.4%, and industrials, off 0.6%.
The four gainers were led by materials, better by 0.4%, information technology, eking up 0.3%, and gold, positive 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose to fresh highs on Thursday following solid earnings reports from tech giants Microsoft and Meta Platforms. Traders also looked ahead to a key trade deadline.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average stayed in the minus category 26.73 points to reach midday at 44,434.55.
The S&P 500 index gained 28.31 points to 6,391.21.
The NASDAQ popped 180.51 points to 21,310.29. Both benchmarks hit record highs at the open.
The S&P 500 has gained more than 3% so far in July, while the NASDAQ Composite is up about 5%. The 30-stock Dow has climbed 1%.
“Magnificent Seven” titans Microsoft increased 6% and Meta rose 11.5% on the back of better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
Software giant Microsoft said that annual revenue from its cloud computing service Azure exceeded $75 billion. Meta issued an upbeat third-quarter sales outlook, surpassing the Street’s estimates. Microsoft’s strong earnings print propelled the company to a $4-trillion market capitalization.
Fellow Mag-7 names Apple and Amazon are slated to report earnings after the bell Thursday.
Adding to the bullish sentiment, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday said negotiations with China are at a point where both sides “have the makings of a deal.”
Bessent did not give any details on a potential deal, however, nor did he indicate when such an agreement could be made. The U.S. and China have until Aug. 12 before the truce over aggressive tariffs runs out.
His comments come ahead of a key Friday, Aug. 1 trade deadline.
Wall Street is coming off a mixed session. The Dow and S&P 500 closed lower Wednesday, while the NASDAQ eked out a small gain, after the Federal Reserve left its benchmark overnight policy rate steady at its July meeting, not all members agreed with the decision.
Prices for the 10-year treasury gained slightly, weighing yields to 4.34% from Wednesday’s 4.37%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell back $1.26 to $68.74 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices faded $5.90 at $3,346.90 U.S. an ounce.
