Canada’s main stock index pulled back modestly Tuesday as investors seemed to shrug off a decision by the U.S. to impose duties on Canada’s softwood lumber.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index lost 34.80 points to 15,281.22, with gold and materials stocks among the biggest decliners.

Late Monday, the U.S. Department of Commerce hit Canada with an additional 6.87% in preliminary average anti-dumping tariffs, leaving the softwood lumber industry facing average duties of about 27%.

But the move turned out to be lighter than expected, which helped forestry stocks finish the day among the gainers.

West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. was up by 1.25%, or 75¢, to $60.65, while Canfor Corp. advanced 1.41%, or 27¢, to $19.44.

Todd Mattina, chief economist with Mackenzie Financial Corp., says the duties had been anticipated and doesn’t believe they’ll have a large impact on the financial market as a whole.

“Lumber is still a very small part of Canada’s total exports and this has been a longstanding grievance between Canada and the U.S.,” said Mattina. “I think while this will certainly have an impact on certain regional companies and specific companies, from a macro and Canadian perspective I wouldn’t expect this to have a dramatic impact on the markets — even though it sorts of set a backdrop or the tone for the larger NAFTA question.”

Canada, the U.S., and Mexico are expected to start negotiations for the new North American Free Trade Agreement in August.

South of the border, the Dow Jones industrial average pulled back 98.89 points to 21,310.66; the Nasdaq composite index was down 100.53 points to 6,146.62; and the S&P 500 composite index shed 19.69 points to 2,419.38.

In currencies, the Canadian dollar was trading up by 0.29 of a U.S. cent at US75.83¢ as the August crude contract advanced by US86¢ at US$44.24 a barrel.

In other commodities, the August gold contract was up by US50¢ to US$1,246.90 an ounce, the August natural gas contract gained US2¢ at US$3.07 per mmBTU and the July copper contract added US2¢at US$2.65 a pound.