After three days of gains, the TSX dipped into the red today as a drop in the energy sector and renewed jitters of U.S./China trade tensions pulled down the index.
The TSX was off by 30 points with 10 of 11 sectors lower.
An uptick in global crude supply caused oil prices to dip, and the heavyweight energy sector followed suit, dropping 1.3 percent.
Despite U.S. sanctions on Iranian crude exports kicking in Nov. 4, the price of oil slid 80 cents to $62.89 US a barrel.
Cushioning the losses on the TSX was a 0.4 percent gain in the financials sectors, boosted by new data from Statistics Canada that shows modest employment gains across the country.
StatsCan reported that over the past year, the number of employed people grew by 206,000 or 1.1 percent, with the bulk of the hires in full-time work.
At 5.8 percent, Canada’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in four decades. However, sluggish wage increases and dips in Canada’s exports and imports clouded the employment picture.
In New York, the Dow dropped 109 points after U.S. President Donald Trump’s economic adviser told CNBC that there is no trade plan in the works for China.
This comes a day after markets were lifted by Trump tweeting that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping “talked about many subjects, with a heavy emphasis on trade.”
Accelerating the index’s decline was a 6.6 percent fall in Apple’s stock, after the tech giant’s sales forecast for the holiday season fell short of analysts’ estimates.
Apple also reported that it will stop reporting sales numbers for iPads, Macs and iPhones.
The tech-dependent Nasdaq also sunk 77 points with drops in Intel, Facebook, and Netflix.
Both gold and the Canadian dollar fell against a strengthening greenback. After jumping nearly $20.00 on Thursday, gold lost $4.00 to $1,234 an ounce while the loonie was off by 9/100ths of a cent to $0.7633 US.
