Falling energy stocks pummel TSX
The Toronto stock market was in the red Friday morning as energy stocks continued to backtrack even as oil prices remained near all-time highs.
"People are saying it's great to have oil from an investing point of view at $133 a barrel – but can this last?" said Adrian Mastracci, portfolio manager at KCM Wealth Management in Vancouver.
"I think it's time to take some money off the table – not all of it, I wouldn't want to be not part of it, but I don't think you would want to load up on it."
Dismal housing data and costly oil helped depress New York markets.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index fell 138.18 points to 14,654.183.85 late in the morning.
The TSX Venture Exchange climbed 13.26 points to 2,693.59 while the Canadian dollar declined 0.12 cent to 101.31 cents US.
New York's Dow Jones industrials were down 130.33 points to 12,495.18.
The Nasdaq composite index slid 26.31 to 2,438.27 while the S&P 500 index moved down 17.17 to 1,377.18 after the National Association of Realtors said single-family home sales dropped by one per cent in April from May, while the median price tumbled 8.5 per cent from a year ago to US$200,700.
The TSX energy sector lost early gains to move down 1.7 per cent while the June crude contract in New York climbed $1.73 to US$132.54 a barrel.
Suncor Energy declined $2.03 to $68.80 while EnCana Corp. (TSX: ECA) moved down $2.03 to $90.90.
Crude had tumbled $2.36 Thursday as investors some profits from the huge recent runup, but analysts expect prices to move even higher.
"The market is really structurally tight … and we've got investors – speculators – empowered to continue to power money into oil," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.
However, Shum added: "The reality is, the faster it goes up for no apparent reason, when it comes down, it will be just as fast."
TSX financials fell almost one per cent with Royal Bank (TSX: RY) down 79 cents to $49.61 and Scotiabank (TSX: BNS) 78 cents lower to $47.37.
The market found some support from BCE Inc http://payday-faxless.com. (TSX: BCE), which rose 49 cents to $33.13, following a 12 per cent loss Thursday which came after the Quebec Court of Appeal upended the proposed $52-billion takeover of the Bell Canada parent company by a group led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
Elsewhere in the telecom sector, Telus Corp. (TSX: T) ran ahead 53 cents to $48.21.
The TSX gold sector moved up 0.3 per cent as the June bullion contract on the Nymex climbed $7.80 to US$926.10 an ounce.
The materials sector was down as Potash Corp. (TSX: POT) lost $6.58 to $190.22, Sherritt International (TSX: S) shed 49 cents to $14.93 and Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) lost 39 cents to $9.20.
Shares in TransCanada Corp. (TSX: TRP) were off 33 cents to $39.59 after Alaska Governor Sarah Palin came out in favour of the company's proposal for a natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to a hub in Alberta.
Aeroplan Income Fund (TSX: AER.UN) disclosed that it intends to change its name to Groupe Aeroplan Inc. as part of its planned conversion from an income trust into a corporation. Aeroplan units rose five cents to $16.36.
In U.S. corporate news, clothing retailer Gap Inc. rang up a first-quarter profit that surpassed analyst projections, rising 40 per cent thanks to cost-cutting and better inventory management,
And Halliburton Co., the world's second-largest oilfield services company, made a US$3.4-billion bid to acquire British rival Expro International Group.
London's FTSE-100 index was down 56.6 points to 6,125. The German DAX shed 100.05 points to 6,970.28, while the Paris CAC-40 declined 84.27 to 4,944.47.
Tokyo's Nikkei index edged up 0.2 per cent, gaining 33.74 points to 14,012.20, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1.3 per cent, closing down 329.05 points to 24,714.07.