Material, financial stocks weigh on Toronto stock market, loonie flat

The Canadian Press</span>
Published Monday, October 22, 2018 5:24AM EDT
Last Updated Monday, October 22, 2018 4:58PM EDT

TORONTO -- Canada's main stock index closed down Monday as investors remain cautious after a recent see-saw in markets while U.S. indices were mixed.

Losses on the Toronto Stock Exchange were widespread across materials, financials and energy indexes while more conservative utilities and real estate indexes rose.

"I think we're seeing a little bit of a continuation of caution from recent volatility," said Craig Fehr, Canadian markets strategist for Edward Jones.

The S&P/TSX composite index ended down 57.4 points at 15,412.70 on 277.58 million shares traded. It hit an intraday high of 15,492.88 points.

The information technology index had the biggest gains at 2.74 per cent as Shopify Inc. climbed 6.05 per cent. The cannabis-heavy health-care index was down the most at 7.47 per cent as marijuana producers continued their post-legalization downward slide.

Cannabis stocks have fallen after a significant run-up in stock prices ahead of legalization. The sector, whose stocks dominate trading volumes on the TSX, will continue to be volatile, said Fehr.

"There's probably still plenty of upside in some names, and plenty of downside in others. Our view is that as an investor you have to treat these as speculative investments at this point."

The Canadian market overall is expected to face continued challenges for overall growth compared with the U.S., said Fehr.

"Some of the domestic headwinds that the economy faces, combined with the impact that has on corporate profits in Canada and the interest rate outlook in Canada, are really contributing to this trailing effect that we've seen for the TSX for the majority of this year."

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 126.93 points at 25,317.41. The S&P 500 index closed down 11.9 points at 2,755.88, while the Nasdaq composite was up 19.6 points at 7,468.63.

The Canadian dollar averaged 76.31 cents US, unchanged from Friday.

The December crude contract ended up eight cents at US$69.36 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down 11.2 cents at US$3.14 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract closed down US$1.40 at US$1,228.70 an ounce and the December copper contract ended up three cents at US$2.78 a pound.

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