Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on July 27 in New York City.Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Canadian equities fluctuated on Tuesday, after tumbling the most in a month yesterday, as energy stocks dropped while Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and the nation's largest lenders advanced.
Energy producers, the worst-performing industry in Canada this year, lost 1.2 per cent as supply gluts in energy resources continue to crimp pricing. The Bloomberg Commodity Index, a gauge tracking a basket of commodities prices from oil to copper, is on pace for a fourth straight monthly retreat. A separate Bloomberg measure of industrial metals has slumped 21 per cent this year amid a slowdown in China's economy that's cut demand.
The Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index fell 20.83 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 13,770.07 at 11:12 a.m. in Toronto. The gauge has rallied 3.5 per cent in October, on pace for the biggest monthly increase since February.
Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia, among the nation's largest lenders, advanced at least 0.9 per cent to lead financial-services stocks higher.
U.S. orders for business equipment unexpectedly declined in September as tepid global markets gave American companies little reason to expand. The latest data comes as the Federal Reserve begins two days of meetings with the central bank widely expected not to raise interest rates.
Commodities producers retreated, led by declines among oil stocks. Crescent Point Energy Corp. dropped 3.4 per cent and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. lost 2.8 per cent. WTI crude was down 2.3 per cent in New York, failing to sustain a rally earlier this month to $50 a barrel amid surging U.S. inventories. Supplies probably rose by 3.5 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before an Energy Information Administration report Wednesday.
Valeant, the drugmaker under scrutiny for its accounting and pricing practices, rebounded 2.8 per cent after touching a one-year low yesterday. Bill Ackman, the billionaire activist investor, will discuss his holding in Valeant on a conference call with other investors Friday. Ackman's fund Pershing Square Holdings Ltd. is Valeant's third-biggest holder, according to a June 30 regulatory filing.
Shares of Laval, Quebec-based Valeant plummeted 32 per cent last week, the most since 1993, after short-seller Citron Research said Valeant is using Philidor to store inventory and record those transactions as sales. Valeant denied the accusations, saying that sales are recorded only when the drugs are sent to patients.
U.S. stocks briefly erased a decline amid mixed earnings reports and data that renewed concern on the strength of the global economy as the Federal Reserve begins a two-day monetary policy meeting.
A rally in equities has tapped on the brakes as investors await the latest from the Fed after worries about a global slowdown kept policy makers from raising interest rates last month. Central bankers in Europe and China last week signalled their commitment to bolstering economic growth, which helped the Standard & Poor's 500 Index erase a loss for the year.
The S&P 500 fell 0.1 per cent to 2,068.63 in New York, after losing as much as 0.5 per cent.
"We're in wait-and-see mode for the Fed," said Yousef Abbasi, global market strategist at JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC in New York. "We're definitely seeing softer data across the U.S., and more negatives than positives in earnings this morning."