Canadian shares dropped for a fifth session as banks, energy producers and miners resumed their slump. The resource-heavy benchmark Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index (TSE:OSPTX) fell 0.7 percent to 14,202.08 at 12:48 p.m. in Toronto. Five shares declined for every issue that advanced as seven out of ten share groups were in the negative territory.
The energy sector, the main index's second most heavily weighted group, decreased 1.6 percent as U.S. oil prices slipped to a fresh two-month low.
Suncor Energy (TSE:SU), Canada's largest oil sands producer, skidded 1.1 percent to C$33.19. Enbridge (TSE:ENB), Canada's largest pipeline company, slipped 0.9 percent to C$55.24. Canadian Natural Resources Limited (TSE:CNQ), Canada’s second-largest energy producer, retreated 2.5 percent to C$30.29.
September West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.6 percent to $48.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The materials sub-index, which includes mining shares, gave up 2 percent as gold slipped back below 1,100.
Goldcorp (TSE:G), Canada’s largest gold miner by market value, sank 2.7 percent to C$16.77. Barrick Gold (TSE:ABX), the second-largest, dropped 3.1 percent to C$9.29.
Teck Resources (TSE:TCK.B), Canada’s largest diversified mining company by market value, fell 6.8 percent to C$9.70 after posting a 21 percent drop in its second-quarter profit, hurt by a continued slump in prices for steelmaking coal and copper.
Spot gold was up 0.3 percent at $1,096.40 an ounce, off a high of $1,105.60. U.S. gold futures for August delivery were up $3.80 an ounce at $1,095.30.
Financials, the index's most heavily weighted sector, declined 1 percent. Royal Bank of Canada (TSE:RY), which has the heaviest weighting in the index, inched down 0.8 percent to C$75.11. Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSE:TD), the second-largest bank by market value, surrendered 0.7 percent to C$51.97.
Rogers Communications (TSE:RCI.B) rose 2.9 percent to C$45.10. Canada's largest wireless carrier said its second-quarter profit fell 10 percent, while revenue improved 6 percent. Adjusted earnings totaled C$0.80, down from a year earlier but a penny better than analyst expectations.
Loblaw (TSE:L), Canada’s biggest grocery store chain, rose 3.9 percent to C$70.19. Loblaw said it had an adjusted profit of C$0.85 per share in the second quarter, up from C$0.74 per year earlier and just ahead of the C$0.83 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (TSE:VRX), the acquisitive Canadian pharmaceutical company, jumped 4.7 percent to C$326.84 after raising its outlook for the year.
The junior S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (CVE:OSPVX) fell 0.7 percent to 604.34 at 12:44 p.m. in Toronto.
In economic news, Canadian retail sales rose 1.0 percent to a record C$42.97 billion in May, topping expectations and rebounding from steep declines in December and January, according to Statistics Canada data today.
Elsewhere, a Reuters poll found that the Canadian economy is already bouncing back from a slump in the first half of the year, but it remains vulnerable to further falls in oil prices and any renewed weakness in export demand from the United States.
In the U.S. market, shares struggled to push higher as investors trained their focus on a barrage of earnings reports, mergers and economic data. The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) skidded 0.5 percent to 2,103.75 at 12:07 p.m. in New York. The 30-company Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) retreated 0.6 percent to 17,752.26, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) dropped 0.2 percent to 5,160.52. Most followed shares included Qualcomm, SanDisk, McDonald’s, GM, Under Armour, Las Vegas Sands, Dunkin’ Brands, American Express, Cigna, Eli Lilly, and Dow Chemical.