TORONTO — Canada's main stock index closed down along with U.S. markets as trade worries and a drop in the oil price weighed.
U.S. stocks were down after a nine-day streak of gains while crude prices fell to a four-year low Monday after the OPEC+ group of oil-producing nations said it plans to increase output.
The fall in crude, as the June crude oil contract fell US$1.16 at US$57.13 per barrel, put extra pressure on energy stocks but the Toronto market was broadly down.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 77.99 points at 24,953.52, while the energy index was down 2.7 per cent.
While companies like Suncor Energy Inc. and Cenovus Energy Inc. were down over three per cent, Parkland Corp. closed up more than five per cent after Sunoco LP signed a deal to acquire it in a deal valued at US$9.1 billion including debt.
Parkland's annual meeting originally scheduled for Tuesday has been moved to June 24, when shareholders will vote on the deal along with competing slates of board directors at the heart of a dispute between the company and shareholder Simpson Oil.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 98.60 points at 41,218.83. The S&P 500 index was down 36.29 points at 5,650.38, while the Nasdaq was down 133.49 points at 17,844.24.
While markets were down on the day, they've overall in more of a wait-and-see mode, said Tamsin Wilding, principal and portfolio manager of fixed income at Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. This week is expected to bring both the upcoming Federal Reserve decision and promised details on U.S. trade deals.
"Very much still waiting for the details and clarification, as to the nature and composition of any of these forthcoming trade deals," she said.
The Fed's next rate decision is Wednesday, and while it's not expected to change rates until later this year it still leaves markets waiting for any updates.
Markets are also still waiting to see how much global asset rebalancing out of U.S. dollar assets takes places, said Wilding.
This Friday will also see Canadian jobs data released, which could start to show the effects of tariffs, unlike U.S. jobs numbers out last Friday that were fairly neutral, she said.
"The thing that's going to be quite interesting here is that Canada was under pressure earlier on in the year on the tariff front, and earlier than other countries," said Wilding.
"So Canada might be one of the first to show, just the true effect of what that slowdown of that tariff uncertainty overhang has on the real economy."
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.40 cents US compared with 72.46 cents US on Friday.
The June crude oil contract was down US$1.16 at US$57.13 per barrel and the June natural gas contract was down eight cents US at US$3.55 per mmBTU.
The June gold contract was up US$79.00 at US$3,322.30 an ounce and the July copper contract was up three cents US at US$4.70 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2025.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press
