Daily Wrap-Up: TSX lower as oil prices soften ahead of data

TSX lower as oil prices soften ahead of data... Economist says US stocks are weaker than they appear... Bell apologizes after data breach...

Daily Wrap-Up: TSX lower as oil prices soften ahead of data
Steve Randall
TSX lower as oil prices soften ahead of data
Markets are awaiting US oil stockpiles data which will be released late Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute, with government data following Wednesday. Ahead of those numbers, oil declined following strong gains over the previous 24 hours.

The energy sector group weighed on the main TSX index but half of the sectors slipped including the influential financials group. Materials led the other five sectors higher as gold prices gained. The overall index closed lower.

Wall Street also lost ground with the Dow and S&P500 flat and the Nasdaq closing higher for the third straight session. European indexes were mixed while Asian bourses closed mostly higher.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 86.14 (0.55 per cent)
The Dow Jones closed down 2.19 (0.01 per cent)
Oil is trending lower (Brent $51.23, WTI $48.24 at 4.50pm)
Gold is trending higher (1236.90 at 4.50pm)
The loonie is valued at U$0.7360

Economist says US stocks are weaker than they appear
The US stock market is not in a bubble, in fact it is weak, according to Canadian economist David Rosenberg.

The Gluskin Sheff + Associates chief economist told BNN that strength in the US markets is limited to a small number of blue chip stocks, a sign of weakness.
He warned against putting too much money into leveraged exchange traded funds.

“The bubble is in passive investing, the bubble is in these leveraged ETFs and ultimately that’s what these passive funds are buying to keep up with the overall market,” Rosenberg told BNN.

He added that taking some profit from winning investments and investing in weaker areas including Canadian energy firms would be a good idea.

Bell apologizes after data breach
Bell Canada has apologized to customers after revealing that it has been hit by a data breach which has compromised 1.9 million email addresses and 1,700 names and phone numbers of customers.

The breach occurred last Wednesday but was only revealed by the company Monday after an anonymous message was posted online apparently by those responsible for the attack.

Bell said that the breach was not part of the global WannaCry attack and said that there was no sign of sensitive data or financial information being accessed.

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