Canada's main stock index touched over three-month lows on Tuesday led by declines in materials companies amid the ongoing Sino-US trade dispute and uncertainty over the future of NAFTA trade pact.
At 9:35 a.m. ET (13:35 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was down 80.64 points, or 0.5 percent, at 15,976.45, its lowest level since the end of May. The index has closed lower in the past seven sessions.
President Donald Trump on Friday threatened duties on $267 billion of goods on top of planned tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese products. China has vowed to respond if the United States took any new steps on trade.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland will meet US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington for another round of talks to renew the NAFTA trade pact, an official said on Monday, as time runs short to seal a deal.
Of the index's 11 major sectors, nine were trading lower, weighed down by a 1.4 percent fall in the materials sector .
Influential decliners on the materials index, which was pressured by a slide in metal prices, were Barrick Gold , down 1.9 percent and First Quantum Minerals off 2.9 percent.
Spot gold fell 0.5 percent to $1,189.71 an ounce, while copper prices declined 1.5 percent to $5,820 a tonne.
Second biggest lag on the main index was a 1.6 percent drop in the energy sector.
Suncor Energy, Canadian Natural Resources and Imperial Oil ltd fell between 0.9 percent and 1.8 percent, biggest lags on the energy group.
US crude prices were up 0.3 percent a barrel, while Brent crude rose 0.7 percent.
The financials sector slipped 0.3 percent. The industrials sector fell 0.3 percent.
Hudson's Bay Co and Signa Holding will merge Germany's Galeria Kaufhof and Karstadt to form Europe's third biggest department store chain as they battle online rivals.
Shares of Hudson's Bay, which bought Kaufhof in 2015, climbed 10 percent.
On the TSX, 75 issues were higher, while 165 issues declined for a 2.20-to-1 ratio to the downside, with 20.56 million shares traded.
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Hudson's Bay Co followed by Northland Power Inc, which rose 4.1 percent after BMO upgraded the stock to "outperform" from "market perform".
BRP Inc fell 8.1 percent, the most on the TSX, after launching a secondary offering. The second biggest decliner was First Majestic Silver, down 4.7 percent.
The most heavily traded shares by volume were Royal Nickel , Aurora Cannabis and Orosur Mining Inc .
The TSX posted no new 52-week highs and 22 new lows.
Across all Canadian issues there were two new 52-week highs and 55 new lows, with total volume of 47.31 million shares.
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