Canadian Market Headed For Weak Close

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is down firmly in negative territory Tuesday afternoon, weighed down by rising bond yields and worries about inflation amid elevated oil prices.

Investors remained cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rate by 25 basis points. The post-meeting comments are eyed for clues about the central bank's future rate path.

Consumer discretionary, consumer staples, real estate, healthcare, utilities and technology sectors are among the notable losers. Energy stocks up sharply thanks to higher oil prices.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 130.17 points or 0.36% at 35,572.36 a little while ago. The index, which edged up to 35,705.33 in early trades, touched a low of 35,405.63.

Ero Copper, Canada Goose Holding, Ivanhoe Mines, Bausch Health Companies, FirstService, Restaurant Brands International, Teck Resources, BRP Inc., Alimentation Couche-Tard, Eldorado Gold, Bombardier, Gildan Activewear, George Weston, Constellation Software, Cameco, Lundin Mining and Dollarama lost 2%-5%.

Suncor Energy gained more than 4.5%. Kelt Exploration and Paramount Services moved up 4.3% and 4.2%, respectively.

Whitecap Resources, Parex Resources, Precision Drilling, Imperial Oil, Tourmaline Oil Corp., Baytex Energy, Nutrien, Gran Tierra Energy and Canadian Natural Resources gained 3%-3.6%.

In economic news, wholesales sales in Canada, excluding petroleum and hydrocarbon products, rose by 0.3% from the previous month to C$93.1 billion in July. The result was revised higher from the flash estimate of a 0.6% decline, extending the 2.8% jump in June to reflect some resilience to higher energy costs from the Canadian manufacturing sector.

Data from Statistics Canada showed new motor vehicle sales in Canada dropped by 2% to 176,200 units in July from 179,800 in the corresponding period a year earlier.