TSX Down Marginally In Lackluster Trade

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks are turning in a lackluster performance on Monday as investors closely focusing on the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House.

The meeting between Trump and several European leaders, including Zelenskyy today, comes after Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday in Alaska yielded some progress but failed to result in a concrete agreement to end the war in Ukraine.

In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump claimed Zelenskyy has the power to "end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to."

Investors also await the upcoming Federal Reserve's Jackson Holey Symposium on Friday. Several central bank chiefs are scheduled to make speeches at the symposium. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will deliver a keynote address at the symposium. His speech is eyed for clues about Fed's stance on interest rate cuts.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 32.10 points or 0.12% at 27,873.39 a little while ago.

Consumer staples and consumer discretionary stocks are faring well. Healthcare and materials shares are under some pressure.

Consumer staples stocks North West Company, Metro and George Weston are up 2.3%, 1.7% and 1.5%, respectively. Empire Company, Saputo and Loblaw are up with moderate gains.

Consumer discretionary stocks Dollarama Inc. and Brp are gaining 2.3% and 2.2%, respectively. Aritzia and Restaurant Brands International are up with moderate gains.

Healthcare stocks Bausch Healthcare and Sienna Seior Living are down 2.1% and 1%, respectively.

In the Materials Capped Index, Fortuna Mines is down nearly 3%, and First Majestic Silver is down 2.8%. Wheaton Precious Metals, Triple Flag Precious Metals, Labrador Iron Ore Royalty, Ivanhoe Mines, Equinox Gold Corp, Teck Resources and Ssr Mining are declining by 1.2 to 2%.

In Canadian economic news, data from Statistics Canada showed housing starts in Canada rose 3.7% in July to 2,94,085 units, up from 2,83,523 in June.