Canada’s main stock index edged lower on Tuesday as investors remained cautious ahead of remarks by the U.S. and Canada’s central bank chairs, while Lithium America soared after a favorable ruling on the Thacker Pass project.
At 10:13 a.m. ET, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 77.1 points, or 0.37%, at 20,551.82.
The Bank of Canada’s (BoC) governor, Tiff Macklem, will be speaking at the CFA Society in Quebec at 12:45 p.m. ET, a day after BoC’s survey showed that market participants expected the central bank to cut interest rates by a half a percentage point to 4% by December.
Across the border, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is also scheduled to speak later in the day, with investors focusing on comments from both the officials for clues on future interest rate decisions.
“I do think they (BoC and Fed) are trying to tone down the aggressive rhetoric,” said Thomas Caldwell, chairman at Caldwell Securities Ltd. “But I’m not sure that people buy into that.”
The rate-sensitive technology sector slid 1.2% complimenting declines of their Wall Street peers, as the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell in early trading.
Limiting losses on the resource-heavy index, Lithium Americas Corp’s jumped 9.8% after a U.S. judge on Monday ordered regulators to reconsider part of the permit approving LAC’s Thacker Pass lithium mine project in Nevada, pulling the materials sector up 0.1%.
Meanwhile, Canada posted a C$160 million ($119.1 million) trade deficit in December, as exports fell largely on energy products while imports were driven down mainly by consumer goods.
In company news, Bitcoin miner Hut 8 Mining Corp dropped 6.9% after the company said it will merge with rival US Bitcoin Corp to create a crypto mining giant in North America.
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