Declining cannabis stocks and a drop in gold prices pulled down the TSX today.
Canada’s stock exchange lost 57 points with losses in seven of 11 sectors.
Gold fell $3.50 to $1,222 an ounce, dragging the materials sector along with it. The sector finished 1.1 percent lower with Kinross Gold Corp. leading the lags by dropping 3.6 percent.
Canada’s pot stocks have taken a beating in the early days of legalization across the nation.
According to Bloomberg, stocks in Aurora Cannabis Inc. and Tilray Inc. have suffered double-digit declines since Oct. 17. And since hitting an all-time high on Oct. 16, Canopy Growth, Canada’s largest cannabis producer, has lost 24 percent in stock value.
It was more of the same today, with the TSX’s health care sector slipping eight percent with shares in Aurora Cannabis, Hydropothecary, Aphria, and Canopy Growth tumbling.
In New York, the Dow dropped 126 points as investors digest underwhelming corporate earnings reports along with geopolitical tensions in the wake of the death of a Saudi journalist in Turkey.
The Nasdaq climbed into the green, gaining 19 points with Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Intel trading higher.
Oil moved up 13 cents to $69.25 US a barrel as global supply concerns outweighed Saudi Arabia boosting its output to 11 million barrels a day to soften the impact of looming U.S. sanctions.
The loonie was flat, strengthening 3/100ths of a cent to $0.7637 US. Even with today’s slight gain, the Canadian dollar has lost more than a cent since its rise to $0.7803 US on Oct. 1, the day after the US-Mexico-Canada deal was struck.
Meanwhile, Stats Canada reported on Monday that wholesale sales edged 0.1 percent lower to $63.6 billion in August.
Sales were down in four of seven subsectors, representing 65 percent of total wholesale sales across the nation.
Building material and supplies, along with sales in vehicles and parts led the declines in August.
