FRANK GUNN/The Canadian Press
The Toronto stock market pulled back near midday amid mixed commodities prices and relatively positive earnings reports out of the United States.
The S&P/TSX composite index lost 19.74 points to 12,508.61.
The Canadian dollar was up 0.16 of a cent 96.18 cents US.
Shares of Loblaw Cos. Ltd. pulled back a day after the company announced it planned to buy Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. for $12.4-billion in cash and stock. The company's stock dipped 78 cents to $49.35, while Shoppers moved down 41 cents to $59.73.
In commodities, August bullion rose $8.30 to $1,291.80 an ounce while the TSX gold sector rose 3.1 per cent.
Shares of Barrick Gold lifted 4.1 per cent after a Chilean appeals court ruled against the world's largest gold mining company on Monday. The court ruled in favour of Chilean Indians who accuse Barrick of contaminating their water downstream and creating more doubts about the future of the world's highest gold mine. Shares of the company gained 64 cents to $16.33.
Oil dropped with the August contract on the Nymex weakening 25 cents to $106.07 a barrel, as the energy sector fell 0.5 per cent.
On Wall Street, the Dow shifted back 32.51 points to 15,451.75, the Nasdaq composite index was 11.25 points lower to 3,6596.24 while the S&P 500 index slid 5.82 points to 1,676.68.
North American stock markets are likely to hold back from any major shifts before the testimony from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday.
The U.S. Labor Department reported a tame inflation rate with the consumer price index rising 0.5 per cent in June from May. Two-thirds of the increase came from a 6.3 per cent jump in gas prices, the largest since February.
A day after Citigroup easily topped Wall Street expectations, Goldman Sachs did the same on Tuesday. The global investment and securities firm doubled its quarterly profits for the second quarter, and it posted revenue of $8.61-billion.
Coca-Cola reported declining profits and weak volume growth for the quarter. Johnson & Johnson said its second-quarter profit more than doubled thanks to higher sales of medicines and medical devices.
Other major names like CSX and Yahoo are also reporting earnings Tuesday.
Overseas, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.3 per cent at 6,568 while Germany's DAX fell 0.3 per cent at 8,208. The CAC-40 in France was 0.8 per cent lower at 3,8847.
Earlier in Asia, South Korea's Kospi fell 0.5 per cent to 1,866.36 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was flat at 21,312.38. China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3 per cent to 2,065.72.