Canada’s resource-heavy stock index slipped on Thursday as weaker gold prices dragged precious metal miners lower, while jitters grew ahead of a barrage of interest rate decisions from central banks next week.
By 10:12 a.m. ET, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index slipped 23.76 points, or 0.12%, to 20,575.84, having hit an over seven-month high earlier in the session.
Wall Street’s main indexes mostly rose but were volatile after data showed the U.S. economy maintained a strong pace of growth in the fourth quarter, with gross domestic product increasing at a 2.9% annualized rate last quarter vs a Reuters poll of a 2.6%.
“We are still kind of in this environment where we are struggling between ‘is good news good or is good news bad?’,” said Greg Taylor, a portfolio manager at Purpose Investments.
“The GDP has come a little higher than expected and we will see if that tends to change the path for the Fed next week.”
The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England are due to announce their interest rate decisions next week after the Bank of Canada (BoC) raised its overnight lending rate by an expected 25 basis points on Wednesday.
Following the decision, BoC Governor Tiff Macklem said he was focused on whether rates would need to go higher and was not even considering a cut.
Material stocks were the top decliners on Thursday, as weaker prices of gold and silver weighed on miners.
Technology stocks rose nearly 1%, limiting the overall market declines, as their Wall Street peers also rose.
Electronics company Celestica inched up 0.6% after reporting a beat on fourth-quarter revenue and earnings.
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