Equities in Canada’s largest centre remained afloat by Tuesday noon, having given up early morning gains, after hitting a record high earlier in the session, propelled by material stocks, while investors awaited the Bank of Canada’s next interest rate decision later in the week.
The TSX Composite progressed 42.36 points by noon to 22,302.66.
The Canadian dollar pulled back 0.06 cents at 73.62 cents U.S.
It was pulled down by a decline in Tilray Brands of 71 cents, or 20.3%, to $2.79, bafter the pot firm said it no longer expected to generate adjusted positive free cash flow for the fiscal year 2024.
In corporate news, shares of Blackberry advanced 32 cents, or 8.2% to $4.23, after the software firm announced a collaboration with AMD to develop robotic systems.
The Bank of Canada is set to announce its next monetary policy decision on Wednesday, where the central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, in its third meeting this year. However, markets are pricing in a little over 65% bets of a cut in June.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange lost 2.38 points to 583.12.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were in the green early on Tuesday, led by materials, better by 1.9%, gold, stronger by 1.2%, and real-estate, improving 0.9%.
The five laggards were weighed most by health-care, sagging 5.9%, while consumer staples lost 0.3%, and financials faded 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back Tuesday as investors struggled to regain some positive momentum ahead of the release of key U.S. inflation data.
The 30-stock index descended 137.87 points to 38,754.93.
The S&P 500 eased 12.08 points to 5,190.31.
The NASDAQ dropped 5.54 points to 16,248.41.
Chipmaker Nvidia dropped 3%. Other mega-cap tech names were also negative for the day, with Meta and Netflix down more than 1% each.
The March consumer price index report is slated for release Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect inflation to have increased 0.3% in March on a month-over-month basis.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained ground, lowering yields to 4.37% from Monday’s 4.42%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices faltered $1.29 to $85.14 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices captured $12.10 to $2,363.10 U.S. an ounce.
