Canadian Market Pares Early Gains, Up Just Marginally An Hour Past Noon

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market, which opened on a buoyant note Tuesday morning, pared its gains subsequently and is hovering around the flat line about an hour past noon.

A firm trend in European markets and higher bullion prices set up a positive start for the Canadian market this morning.

However, amid uncertainty about the near term outlook for the market due to lingering concerns about recession and rising interest rates, the mood has turned cautious.

Energy stocks are down sharply, weighed down by weak crude oil prices. Materials shares are up thanks to higher bullion prices. Consumer discretionary and utilities shares are up with notable gains.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which climbed to 19,661.58 in early trades, dropped to a low of 19,380.34 in early afternoon trades, and is currently up 37.68 points or 0.19% at 19,422.60.

Kinross Gold Corporation (K.TO) is up 6% on huge volumes. B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO), Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX.TO), Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp (AQN.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) are up 2.3 to 4.5%.

ARC Resources (ARX.TO) is plunging more than 7%. Tamarack Valley Energy (TVE.TO) is down 6% and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) is drifting down 5%.

Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO) are down 4%, 3.4% and 2.8%, respectively.

Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR.B.TO) shares are down nearly 2%. Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR.TO) said Monday that the Canadian Competition Tribunal ruled that the merger of Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI.TO) with Shaw Communications is not likely to result in materially higher prices or a decline in service or innovation. The Tribunal also noted that the Federal Antitrust Commissioner failed to prove that the deal would cause significant harm to competition in the industry. The merger deal is worth $14.8 billion.

Rogers Communications Inc. shares are down more than 3%.

On the economic front, a report from Markit Economics said the S&P Global Canada Manufacturing PMI dropped to 49.2 in December of 2022 from 49.6 in November, pointing to the fifth straight month of falling factory activity, amid further falls in output, new orders and purchasing activity.