Toronto stocks fall for a seventh straight day; crude oil prices fall

TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index started the week losing ground for a seventh-straight session amid an off-day for any headlines on NAFTA as negotiations are set to resume Tuesday.

It was a rather directionless day for equities with some pockets of strength and weakness, said Craig Fehr, Canadian markets strategist for Edward Jones.

He expects political drama and issues over trade and tariffs will probably spook the markets sporadically but otherwise return to fundamentals such as economic growth on light news days.

“You put those together and on days when there’s not the distraction of political drama or policy risks, I think that is probably where the markets will gravitate back to which again absent the headline risks probably leads the markets higher over time,” he said in an interview.

The United States has enjoyed strong corporate earnings and economic data, including last week’s labour report. Canada’s employment report was weaker with 51,600 net jobs lost last month that drove the national unemployment rate to six per cent, up from 5.8 per cent in July.

While weekend tweets from U.S. President Donald Trump about China stoked some fears, markets didn’t overreact because the trade dispute between the two countries will simmer for awhile, Fehr said.

The S&P/TSX composite index lost 33.18 points to close at 16,057.09, after reaching a low of 16,057.09 on 200.7 million shares traded.

The stock market is down about two per cent since Aug. 29.

Monday’s session saw major sectors like gold fall 1.78 per cent and energy move down one per cent. Materials, metals, consumer staples and financials also lost ground.

The cannabis-heavy health-care sector led, rising 1.5 per cent. Information technology, consumer discretionary, real estate, utilities and telecom services were up.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 59.47 points to 25,857.07. The S&P 500 index was up 5.45 points to 2,877.13, while the Nasdaq composite was up 21.62 points to 7,924.16.

The Canadian dollar was trading at an average of 75.97 cents US, compared with an average of 75.96 cents US on Friday.

The October crude contract was down 21 cents to US$67.54 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up 2.8 centsto US$2.80 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down 60 cents US to US$1,199.80 an ounce and the December copper contract was up 0.55 of a cent at US$2.63 a pound.