Canadian grocery retailers feel heat of Amazon-Whole Foods deal

The Canadian Press</span>
Published Friday, June 16, 2017 12:24AM EDT
Last Updated Friday, June 16, 2017 1:40PM EDT

TORONTO - Shares of Canadian grocery retailers fell in early trading in the wake of Amazon.com's deal to buy Whole Foods Market.

The S&P/TSX composite index was down 28.94 points to 15,131.48, after 90 minutes of trading, as the consumer staples subindex fell the most.

Shares of Loblaw, Metro and the parent of Sobeys each fell about four per cent following Amazon's announcement to acquire Whole Foods in a friendly deal valued at about US$13.7 billion.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 37.14 points to 21,322.76. The S&P 500 index shed 7.82 points to 2,424.64, and the Nasdaq composite index was down 31.91 points to 6,133.59.

The Canadian dollar was trading at 75.53 cents US, up from Thursday's average price of 75.28 cents US.

The July crude contract was up 20 cents at US$44.66 per barrel and the July natural gas contract was down one cent at US$3.04 per mmBTU.

The August gold contract was up US$2.30 to US$1,256.90 an ounce and the July copper contract was unchanged at US$2.56 a pound.

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