Daily Wrap-Up: Oil drops on US drilling intentions

Oil drops on US drilling intentions... Trade deficit narrows as vehicles lead exports...

Daily Wrap-Up: Oil drops on US drilling intentions
Steve Randall
Oil drops on US drilling intentions
Oil continued lower Friday on fears that the US pulling out of the Paris agreement on climate change may mean an escalation of its oil output.

With concerns already increasing that the global supply glut will not ease as demand for oil weakens, the markets are weighing the prospect of the OPEC production cap extension having little impact or members failing to comply.

With a 1 per cent drop in oil prices pushing the energy sector down almost 2 per cent, the 6 sector groups that did gain, led by consumer staples, failed to offset the overall decline for the main TSX index.

Wall Street closed higher despite the jobs data showing almost 50,000 fewer jobs than expected. European and Asian indexes were mostly higher.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 27.16 (0.18 per cent)
The Dow Jones closed up 62.11 (0.29 per cent)
Oil is trending higher (Brent $50.09, WTI $47.80 at 4.30pm)
Gold is trending lower (1281.20 at 4.30pm)
The loonie is valued at U$0.7411

Trade deficit narrows as vehicles lead exports
Canada’s trade deficit narrowed to $370 million in April as exports of passenger cars and light trucks led gains of exports 1.8 per cent higher to $47.7 billion. The deficit was down from $936 million in March.

Imports were up 0.6 per cent, Statistics Canada reported Friday, to $48.1 billion on the strength of price increases. Total trade, exports and imports, was up 10.9 per cent year-over-year to $95.7 billion.

Exports to the United States increased 5.4 per cent to a record high of $36.1 billion in April, while imports from the US were up 1.1 per cent to $31.1 billion.

There was a decline of 7.8 per cent in exports to countries other than the US to $11.6 billion. Imports from other countries were down 0.2 per cent.

LATEST NEWS