Daily Wrap-up: TSX dips on weak commodities

TSX dips on weak commodities... Prairie housing market at risk says CMHC... Industrial prices lower in October... Best Buy Canada suffers Black Friday nightmare...

Steve Randall
TSX dips on weak commodities
Canadian energy stocks slipped Friday as oil dropped 3 per cent on the strength of the greenback and the global oversupply. Other commodities were also continuing to show weakness with natural gas, gold and silver all among those declining.

Global stocks were dented by a 5 per cent drop in Chinese equities with the poor sentiment spreading through Asia and Europe with most of the major indexes closing lower.

Wall Street re-opened for a half-day session having been closed Thursday for Thanksgiving. Trade volume was low and the three main indexes closed mixed.
 
The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 56.95 (0.42 per cent)
The Dow Jones closed down 14.90 (0.08 per cent)
Oil is trending lower (Brent $44.87, WTI $41.77 at 4.10pm)
Gold is trending lower (1055.90 at 4.10pm)
The loonie is valued at U$0.7479
 
Prairie housing market at risk says CMHC
The CMHC said Friday that it is preparing for mortgage defaults in the Prairies as the effect of the oil downturn catches up with homeowners. The federal agency warned that the arrears rate in Alberta was 0.28 per cent in the third quarter, slightly lower than the 0.35 per cent national average, however there has been a rise since the start of the year and house prices and sales volume are declining. The CMHC is expecting to see increased rates of arrears and possibly insurance claims in the coming months.
 
Industrial prices lower in October
The Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI) declined 0.5 per cent in October, mainly as a result of lower prices for motorized and recreational vehicles. The Raw Materials Price Index (RMPI) increased 0.4 per cent, led by higher prices for crude energy products. Statistics Canada reported that among the 21 major commodity groups, 2 were up, 18 were down and 1 was unchanged. Meanwhile the Raw Materials Price Index rose 0.4 per cent in October, after increasing 2.4 per cent in September. Of the six major commodity groups, three were up and three were down.
 
Best Buy Canada suffers Black Friday nightmare
The last thing online retailers want on one of the busiest shopping days of the year is for their website to let them down but that’s what happened to Best Buy Canada. Black Friday sales were hit as customers were unable to complete purchases and took to social networks to complain. As the company posted updates on its website promising that the technical issues would soon be rectified many consumers had already gone elsewhere to spend their cash.
 

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