Pot stocks were a real drag on the TSX, which lost 47 points today.
Cannabis producers suffered losses ranging from moderate to large on Canada’s stock exchange, with Aphria dropping the most among the index’s most actively traded marijuana stocks as it plummeted 16.9 percent.
Other major players including Aurora Cannabis, Canopy Growth, and Hydropothecary Corp. saw their share prices fall.
The struggling marijuana stocks equated into a stumble for the health care sector, which lost nearly nine percent.
Health care wasn’t the only pull on the index with the influential energy and materials sectors also sliding into the red.
In the U.S., surging Apple shares and a slower-than-expected inflation rate drove markets in an upward direction, offsetting a Trump tweet stating that America is under no pressure to make a trade deal with China.
The Dow had triple-digit gains, up 147 points, while the Nasdaq rose 59 points.
Apple shares moved 2.4 percent higher, the day after the tech giant rolled out four new products, highlighted by its largest-ever iPhone.
Oil fell sharply, down $1.65 to $68.72 US a barrel with reports of record global supplies, along with Hurricane Florence weakening slightly to a Category 2 storm as it is about to make landfall on the U.S. east coast.
And after strengthening to a near two-week high against the greenback on Wednesday, the loonie was flat today, gaining 6/100ths of a cent to $.07687 US while gold dropped $3.60 to $1,201 an ounce.
Meanwhile, Aphria Inc. announced today that it has entered into a wholesale supply agreement with Emblem Cannabis Corp. to supply 175,000 kilograms of, according a release, “high-quality cannabis” over a five-year period starting in May 2019 with a total of 25,000 kilograms deliverable for the balance of the first year.
