China worries push TSX down
UNCERTAINTY: Spending cuts in America also have impact on Toronto markets
TORONTO — A new round of worry about the Chinese economy and uncertainty about the impact of big U.S. government spending cuts pushed the Toronto stock market lower Monday.
The S&P/TSX composite index lost 65.71 points to 12,707.41, while the TSX Venture Exchange was off 22.91 points to 1,097.17.
Expansion in China’s services sector slowed last month to its lowest level since September.
“(China) is not the only engine of global growth but it is a very, very important engine of global growth,” observed Craig Fehr, Canadian markets specialist at Edward Jones in St. Louis.
The Canadian dollar, meanwhile, moved down 0.06 of a cent to 97.3 cents US two days before the Bank of Canada makes its next announcement on interest rates.
The bank could signal interest rate hikes are even further down the road than thought because of persistent economic weakness.
In New York, where indexes aren’t nearly so resource dominated, stocks advanced despite concerns the $85 billion US in across-theboard cuts that went into effect Friday could slow the economic recovery.
The Dow Jones industrials gained 38.16 points to 14,127.82, the Nasdaq was up 12.29 points to 3,182.03 while the S&P 500 index edged up seven points to 1,525.2.
Commodity prices were weak on top of losses on Friday. Miners led TSX declines, with the base metals component down 2.7 per cent as May copper gave up early gains in the wake of the Chinese data and was unchanged at $3.50 US.
The gold sector fell about 2.7 per cent as April bullion inched up a dime to $1,572.40 US an ounce. Barrick Gold Corp. was down 81 cents to $29.29.
The energy sector was down 1.23 per cent while worries about demand from China helped push the April crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange down 56 cents to $90.12 US a barrel, its lowest close this year.