Daily Wrap-up: Materials, healthcare, energy drag TSX to negative close

Materials, healthcare, energy drag TSX to negative close... BoC and federal government renews inflation target... Wholesale trade up for 5th consecutive month...

Steve Randall
Materials, healthcare, energy drag TSX to negative close
Seven of the ten sectors of Toronto’s main stock index gained Monday but their combined strength was no match for decline in materials, healthcare and energy.
The TSX tipped into negative territory in what was otherwise a relatively strong day for world markets.

Wall Street was boosted by earnings along with European indexes, which were also buoyed by Eurozone and German PMI data. Asian markets closed mostly higher too.

Oil declined, but held above $50, with concern that the OPEC output cut may be scuppered by Iraq. Gold prices slipped from recent highs.
 
The S&P/Composite Index closed down 16.03 (0.11 per cent)
The Dow Jones closed down 77.32 (0.43 per cent)
Oil is trending lower (Brent $51.41, WTI $50.43 at 4.55pm)
Gold is trending lower (1264.70 at 4.55pm)
The loonie is valued at U$0.7470
 
BoC and federal government renews inflation target
Canada’s inflation target of between 1 and 3 per cent will remain in place for the next 5 years, the government announced Monday. It said the Bank of Canada’s monetary policy, which has been targeting inflation for three decades, will continue.

In a speech, BoC governor said that its policies had maintained inflation at roughly the mid-point of the target since 1991 and there had been no incidents of inflation falling outside of the 1 to 3 per cent range.

The bank will alter the way it calculates inflation though, with three new metrics instead of the standard measure of the ‘core’ which excludes volatile items.
 
Wholesale trade up for 5th consecutive month
There was another gain for Canada’s wholesale trade in August, marking the fifth straight month of gains.

The 0.8 per cent rise took wholesale sales to $56.8 billion; they were also up 0.8 per cent in volume terms. Five of the seven subsectors gained, accounting for 80 per cent of total sales.

Miscellaneous and machinery, equipment and supplies were the largest risers while food, beverage and tobacco, and farm product were the only subsectors to decline.
 

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