The Toronto Stock Exchange bounced back at the close Monday, erasing losses earlier in the day, as Wall Street indices fell moderately.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up by 21.25 points at 15,629.75 — its second consecutive positive trading day.
The commodities-heavy index had been down earlier after China, the second-largest economy in the world, cut its economic growth forecast.
Over the weekend, Premier Li Keqiang, China’s top economic official, trimmed the country’s growth target to 6.5%, down from last year’s expansion of 6.7%. Li also warned of dangers from global pressure for trade controls.
The prospect of slower growth in China hurt mining, packaging and chemical companies and sent the price of copper lower.
In New York, stocks ended broadly lower, with banks and materials companies incurring some of the biggest losses.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 51.37 points to 20,954.34, the S&P 500 composite index shed 7.81 points to 2,375.31, and the Nasdaq composite index fell by 21.57 points to 5,849.18.
The modest declines followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim Saturday that his predecessor Barack Obama had tapped the telephones at Trump Tower during the U.S. election campaign.
The statement also comes amid the swirl of revelations about contacts between Trump aides and Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., both during and after a presidential election Russia is believed to have meddled in. The president has been trailed for months by questions about his campaign’s ties to Russia.
“Obviously one of the uncertainties and risks from President Trump has been his sometimes inflammatory rhetoric in the media,” says Craig Fehr, a Canadian markets strategist with Edward Jones in St. Louis. “This weekend probably falls into this category.”
Still, Fehr adds: “I think that again the markets have found comfort that outside some of the tweets and some of the headlines, that Trump’s economic agenda actually shows a lot of promise.”
The U.S. president’s repeated promises to reform taxes, slash red tape and ramp up spending on defence and infrastructure projects have seen the markets perform well since the U.S. election in November.
Major New York indices had experienced small gains on Friday following a speech that day by U.S. Federal Reserve Board chairwoman Janet Yellen, who said the central bank will likely lift its key interest rate this month, citing an improving job market and rising inflation.
In currencies, the Canadian dollar was at US74.57¢, down 0.17 of a cent from Friday’s close.
In commodities, the April crude contract lost US13¢ at US$53.20 a barrel and April natural gas was up by US7¢ at US$2.90 per mmBTU.
April gold gave up US$1 at US$1,225.50 an ounce and May copper declined by US4.5¢ at US$2.65 a pound sterling.