In this May 23, 2013 photo, mining trucks sit parked on the facilities at the Barrick Gold Corp's Pascua-Lama project facilities in northern Chile.Jorge Saenz/The Associated Press
The Toronto stock market was in the red, led by energy stocks, on Monday morning ahead of a heavy slate of earnings from resource companies this week.
The S&P/TSX composite index gave back 34.5 points to 15,420.54.
"This week will be jam-packed with information for investors to digest," said Craig Fehr, Canadian markets specialist at Edward Jones in St. Louis.
The Canadian dollar rose 0.12 of a cent at 92.56 cents (U.S.).
New York markets were lower as the Dow Jones industrials moved down 52.95 points at 16,907.62, the Nasdaq declined 26.41 points to 4,423.15 and the S&P 500 index dropped 7.83 points to 1,970.51.
Big names in the Canadian gold mining and energy sector, such as Barrick Gold Corp. and Suncor Energy, report their second-quarter results this week. Those two sectors are the best performing on the TSX year to date with energy up 19 per cent while the gold sector is up 28 per cent, but that's after being cut in half last year.
"This is an important week for the TSX because those two areas, gold and energy, have been the areas that have led the TSX to a 15 per cent total return so far this year – huge gains in those sectors," added Fehr.
Bombardier is also reports its results Thursday. Its shares are close to its 52-week low of $3.44 and investors will be looking for an update on the development of the company's crucial CSeries airliner, which has been beset by a series of delays.
The energy sector led TSX decliners, down 0.9 per cent as September crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange lost 95 cents to $101.14 (U.S.) a barrel.
Athabasca Oil Corp. shares were 50 cents or 7.27 per cent to $6.38 (Canadian) as the Calgary-based company seeks to reassure investors that it is working to close a $1.23-billion oil sands asset sale to PetroChina.
Rail stocks led the industrial sector down 0.9 per cent.
The gold sector was down slightly as August bullion gained $1.50 to $1,304.80 (U.S.) an ounce.
Positive Chinese industrial data provided some lift.
September copper was up one cent to $3.25 a pound as government data out Sunday showed a 17.9 per cent surge in net income last month compared to a year ago at China's largest industrial concerns. The gain outpaced an 8.9 per cent increase in May, but some of the improvement was due to statistical distortion.
The TSX base metals sector led TSX advancers, up 0.65 per cent.
There was also major acquisition activity in the U.S. where Dollar Tree is buying rival discount store Family Dollar in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $8.5-billion.
The data calendar for Canada is light this week with only one major report. Statistics Canada posts May gross domestic product figures on Thursday. Economists looked for a 0.3 per cent gain for the month.
In the U.S., traders will look to second-quarter GDP data out Tuesday, the Federal Reserve makes its scheduled announcement on interest rates on Wednesday and on Friday, the U.S. government releases its employment report for July. Economists expect that about 230,000 jobs were created during the month.