Investors looked over the latest trade developments on Thursday, while gains in the materials sector were offset by losses with energy shares as the price of oil moved lower, leaving Canada’s main stock index relatively flat. The loonie weakened against the US dollar, approaching the previous day’s one-week low. Wall Street markets lost ground from the record highs enjoyed earlier in the week as Q2 2019 earnings rolled in. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq sustained wounds from sagging Netflix shares. The streaming juggernaut closed down 10.2% after reporting that it lost subscribers in the U.S. and missed targets for new overseas subscribers. It spelled bad news for its global expansion plans and also kicked off FAANG earnings reporting season on a less-that-stellar-note. The communication services sector had ben one of the best-performing on the S&P this year, but it lost 1.2% over Netflix’s disappointing numbers.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 10.02 points to 16,494.23, and the TSX Venture Exchange was up 0.84 of a point to 588.03.
The Canadian dollar traded for 76.40 cents US compared with an average of 76.61 cents US on Wednesday.
Crude oil prices were down $1.08 to $55.70.
The price of gold was up $24.59 to $1,445.85.
In U.S. markets; the Dow shed 3.12 points to 27,222.97, the S&P 500 rose 10.69 points to 2,995.11 and the NASDAQ was up 22.04 points to 8,207.24.
In world markets; the Nikkei tumbled 414.61 points to 21,046.24, the Hang Seng sunk 130.91 points to 28,461.66, the FTSE lost 42.13 points to 7,493.09, and the DAX gave up another 112.14 points to 12,227.85.