Daily Wrap-up: Another weak finish for TSX, Wall Street

Another weak finish for TSX, Wall Street... BMO predicts Canadian dollar to hit 75 cents... More oil jobs cut as Encana lays off 200... Child care cheques unlikely to stimulate economy says CIBC... Lowes to add 2 more stores...

Steve Randall
Another weak finish for TSX, Wall Street
The Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges once again ended their sessions below water as commodity prices and earnings took their toll on the indexes. Asian and European markets also closed with losses as investors decided a sell-off was the right course of action amid mixed corporate and economic data.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 79.13 (0.55 per cent)
The NYSE closed lower (Dow down 163.4 / 0.92 per cent)
Oil is trending lower (Brent $54.77, WTI $48.17 at 4.20pm)
Gold is trending lower
The loonie is valued at U$0.7658 (at 4.20pm)
 
BMO predicts Canadian dollar to hit 75 cents
The loonie is heading lower and according to the Bank of Montreal it will soon be worth just 75 cents against the greenback. The BMO says that the 23 per cent drop in the value of the Canadian dollar since 2013 is good news for exporters but bad for consumers. Oil prices, Canadian economic policy and the stronger US economy are all part of the reason for the loonie’s continuing decline.
 
More oil jobs cut as Encana lays off 200
Encana is cutting 200 jobs due to the continued pressure on oil and natural gas prices. The firm, which has moved increasingly towards oil production over recent years, reported that weak production has led to a bigger quarterly loss than predicted.
 
Child care cheques unlikely to stimulate economy says CIBC
The government’s Universal Child Care Benefit cheques that families will be receiving in the next few days will do little to stimulate the economy according to CIBC. The bank’s Avery Shenfield said Friday that if all recipients spent their windfall now then it could add 0.8 per cent to quarterly GDP but in reality it is likely that many will save the money and when factoring in tax the benefit will be negligible.
 
Lowes to add 2 more stores
Lowes is to build two more stores in Ontario at a cost of $50 million. That’s in addition to the 12 stores it acquired from Target. It will bring the retailer’s total to 54 across Canada. 
 

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