Friday, June 26, 2009 12:07 PM
At noon: Commodities crunched
North American stocks were generally down on Friday at midday, after commodity producers declined with a dip in the price of crude oil.
At noon, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 51 points or 0.6 per cent, to 8421. The broader S&P 500 was down 4 points or 0.5 per cent, to 916.
Despite the modest downturn, it was widespread, hitting all 10 subindexes in the S&P 500. Energy stocks were the hardest hit, falling 1.1 per cent after the price of oil fell more than $1 (U.S.), to below $70 a barrel.
Stocks that are considered economically defensive were also hit disproportionately hard – an unusual setback, given that cyclical stocks were also down.
Among defensives, health care stocks fell 0.9 per cent, utilities fell 0.6 per cent and consumer staples fell 0.5 per cent.
Among cyclicals, information technology stocks were the best off, falling less than 0.1 per cent. Consumer discretionary stocks fell 0.2 per cent and financials fell 0.4 per cent.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 4 points, to 10,360. There, information technology rose 1.5 per cent and financials rose 1 per cent.
However, commodity producers weighed the index down. Materials fell 1.5 per cent and energy stocks fell 1 per cent.
