TSX Recovers After Early Setback; Materials Stocks Move Higher

(RTTNews) - After a weak start and a subsequent drop to lower levels, the Canadian market recovered well and is down just marginally a little past noon on Friday, with materials stocks attracting some strong buying. Communications, technology and healthcare stocks are trading weak.

The early setback was due to U.S. President Donald Trump's threat that 50% tariffs will be imposed on imports from the European Union beginning June 1st.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that the EU has "been very difficult to deal with" and said trade talks with the bloc are "going nowhere!"

The U.S. President also threatened to impose a 25% tariff on Apple iPhones that are not manufactured in the U.S.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which tumbled to 25,724.70 earlier in the session, was down 12.61 points or 0.05% at 25,841.40 a few minutes past noon.

Tilray is down nearly 5%. Bausch Health Companies, Methanex, ATS Corporation, Novagold, Shopify, MDA Space, Magna International, CGI Inc., Transalta Corp., Canadian National Railway, Open Text Corporation, TFI International and BlackBerry are down 1 to 2.3%.

Energy Fuels Inc. shares are soaring nearly 15%. Denison Mines, NexGen Energy and Cameco are up 10.2%, 10.1% and 8.7%, respectively.

Dundee Precious Metals, Ngex Minerals, Aya Gold & Silver, G Mining Ventures, Equinox Gold, Lundin Gold, K92 Mining, Calibre Mining, IamGold Corp., and Lightspeed Commerce are up 3 to 5%.

Vermilion Energy (VET.TO) is down 2%. The company announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of its Saskatchewan and Manitoba assets for cash proceeds of C$415 million. Net proceeds from the transaction will be directed towards debt repayment.