Daily Wrap-Up: Valeant drop leads losses for TSX

Valeant drop leads losses for TSX... Ottawa sets budget date... Canada’s trade with the world in surplus again...

Daily Wrap-Up: Valeant drop leads losses for TSX
Steve Randall
Valeant drop leads losses for TSX
Valeant Pharmaceuticals continues to worry investors and its shares were down more than 5 per cent Tuesday, taking the healthcare group of the main TSX into negative territory.

Eight of the ten main sectors lost ground with only IT and utilities avoiding the drop.

Wall Street also declined along with European indexes while Asian markets performed better.

Commodities lost ground with oil suffering from uncertain commitments on output while gold prices are under pressure from a near-certain rise in Fed interest rates this month.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 20.97 (0.13 per cent)
The Dow Jones closed down 29.58 (0.14 per cent)
Oil is trending lower (Brent $55.63, WTI $52.78 at 4.50pm)
Gold is trending lower (1215.60 at 4.50pm)
The loonie is valued at U$0.7454

Ottawa sets budget date
The federal finance minister has set the date for the next budget; March 22 at 4pm.

Bill Morneau revealed the news in response to a question in parliament and anticipation will now be raised ahead of the details of how Ottawa’s infrastructure improvements will impact the deficit.

The forecast made in November was that the budget would be $25.1 billion in deficit for 2017-17.

Canada’s trade with the world in surplus again
Canada’s merchandise trade balance with the world posted a surplus in January, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday.

It was the third month of running a surplus and the figure increased from $447 million in December to $807 million in January. Exports were up 0.5 per cent while imports were down to 0.3 per cent.

Exports were driven by motor vehicles and parts, as well as farm, fishing and intermediate food products were the largest contributors to the increase. The total of $46.5 billion was a new record. Volume was up 1 per cent while prices fell 0.5 per cent.

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