The initial shine from Canada’s tentative trade agreement with the U.S. and Mexico wore off on Tuesday as Canada’s main stock index closed lower on weakness in the key energy, financial and industrial sectors.
The S&P/TSX composite index enjoyed a muted rally on Monday after the deal confirmed Canadian autos wouldn’t face new tariffs, but after the euphoria wore off it ended the day only slightly higher, said Allan Small, senior investment adviser with HollisWealth.
On Tuesday, it closed down 87.20 points to 16,017.23, after hitting a low of 15,987.14 on 248.2 million shares traded.
“(The deal) took away the uncertainty that has been looming over this trade negotiations for quite some time, but at the end of the day I think the agreement itself wasn’t too different than the existing one,” he said in an interview.
“I think the market went up on a bit of a relief rally and today we’re back to the grind.”
Small said investors are optimistic about the upcoming earnings’ season, but he expects companies will talk about how tariffs are starting to take a bite out of profits.
On Tuesday, the gold sector led, rising 3.6%, followed by materials.
Healthcare was down 3.6%, led by a 9.8% drop by cannabis companies Aphria Inc. and 6.5% decrease by Canopy Growth Corp.
Information technology closed off 2.5%, followed by energy at 1.8% and industrials at almost 1%.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average set a new record high, gaining 122.73 points to close at 26,773.94 led by gains from Intel, General Electric, Caterpillar and 3M.
Small said the Dow’s gain is misleading because it involves just 30 of the largest stocks.
Meanwhile, The S&P 500 index lost 1.16 points to 2,923.43 as banks and technology were down, while the Nasdaq composite fell by 37.75 points to 7,999.55.
After hitting a four-month high of US78.11¢ on Monday, the Canadian dollar fell, trading at an average of US78.02¢.
“I don’t think that investors believe that this is a big win for our country,” Small said of the United Stats-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The November crude contract was down US7¢ at US$75.23 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was up US7.2¢ at US$3.17 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$15.30 at US$1,207 an ounce and the December copper contract was up US1.9¢ at US$2.81 a pound.