Uncertainty over NAFTA negotiations took a toll on the TSX today.
Canada and the U.S. weren’t able to meet Trump’s deadline on a trade agreement on Friday, with talks expected to resume on Wednesday.
Canada’s stock exchange finished 101 points lower with the sell-off largely attributed to NAFTA issues, which created hand-wringing among investors.
Negative Trump tweets targeting Canada over the weekend, including one that said there was “no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal” also impacted markets.
All but one of the TSX’s 12 major sectors slipped in the red with the biggest pull coming from materials, which dropped 1.6 percent with the price of gold plunging $9.60 to $1,192 an ounce.
On Wall Street, positive U.S. consumer data wasn’t enough to offset trade tensions and a tumble in Nike shares as the Dow ended the day down slightly by 12 points.
And falling Facebook shares factored into a decline on the Nasdaq, which lost 18 points despite Amazon hitting the $1 trillion mark in value earlier today.
Oil was flat, falling 43 cents to $69.37 US a barrel while the reeling loonie lost half a cent, dropping to $.07587 US.
Meanwhile, Amazon briefly became a member of the exclusive $1 trillion club today.
At one point of the trading day, the U.S. mega-company’s stock rose nearly two percent to $2,050.50, allowing it to cross the $1 trillion mark, but then pulled back slightly to just $2,039.51, or 1.3 percent higher.
