TSX falls with oil
TORONTO (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks retreated from a record as commodity producers such as Petro-Canada and Teck Cominco Ltd. tumbled with oil and metals prices.Disappointing earnings reports from BCE Inc., Canada’s largest telephone company, and Cameco Corp., the world’s largest supplier of uranium, also weighed on the market. Bombardier Inc., the world’s biggest maker of rail equipment, dropped after UBS AG lowered its recommendation on the shares.
Energy and raw-materials shares, which account for more than two-fifths of the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index’s value, were the biggest drag on the benchmark today. Raw-materials stocks have been the best performers among 10 industry groups in the S&P/TSX over the past month, helping to push the benchmark to a record four times this year.
“It’s difficult to find compelling reasons for the market going higher,” said Rick Hutcheon, who manages about $171 million as chief investment officer at RKH Financial in Toronto. “Commodities have led us up and they’ll probably lead us going down again.”
The S&P/TSX fell 41.08, or 0.3 percent, to 13,142.25 in Toronto. The index closed at a record 13,183.33 yesterday.
The market’s decline was limited after a report on worker productivity and labor costs suggested inflation is under control in the US, Canada’s biggest trading partner.
Crude oil for March delivery declined 2 percent to $57.71 a barrel in New York after a government report showed that US fuel stockpiles are ample.
Oil opened higher every day this week before slipping later in each session. Heating oil, diesel, crude oil and gasoline inventories last week were above the five-year average for the period, the Energy Department said today.
A gauge of energy producers in the S&P/TSX fell 1 percent for the biggest drop among 10 industry groups.
