Canadian Market Retreats After Upbeat Start, Up Just Marginally At Noon

(RTTNews) - Despite starting off on a buoyant note, the Canadian market is up just marginally in positive territory a little before noon on Tuesday with several stocks paring early gains due to stiff resistance at higher levels.

Data showing consumer prices in the U.S. inched up by less than expected in the month of October helped ease concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Fed's policy announcement, and set up a firm start for the market.

The Labor Department's report said the consumer price index crept up by 0.1% in November after climbing by 0.4% in October. Economists had expected consumer prices to rise by 0.3%.

The report also showed the annual rate of growth by consumer prices slowed to 7.1 percent in November from 7.7 percent in October.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which surged to 20,341.26 earlier, gaining more than 330 points in the process, is up 31.95 points or 0.16% 20,051.65 a few minutes before noon.

Technology, energy, materials, real estate and consumer staples stocks are up with strong gains, and financials shares are weak, while shares from other sectors are turning in a mixed performance.

In the technology section, Softchoice Corp (SFTC.TO) is climbing nearly 6.5%, Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO) is up 5.2%, Quarterhill (QTRH.TO) is rising 4.7% and Coveo Solutions (CVO.TO) is gaining 4.5%.

Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Celestica Inc (CLS.TO), Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO), Magnet Forensics (MAGT.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) and Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO) are up 2 to 4%.

Among energy stocks, Spartan Delta Corp (SDE.TO) is up 6.3%. Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Secure Energy Services (SES.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Freehold Royalties (FRU.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Prairiesky Royalty (PSK.TO) and Precision Drilling Corp (PD.TO) are up 2 to 3%.

Materials shares Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), Oceanagold Corp (OGC.TO), Ero Copper (ERO.TO), Dundee Precious Metals (DPM.TO), Capstone Mining Corp (CS.TO), Methanex (MX.TO), Lundin Mining Corp (LUN.TO), Equinox Gold Corp (EQX.TO) and B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO) are up 4.5 to 8.4%.

Tricon Capital Group Inc (TCN.TO), up 5%, is the biggest gainer in the real estate sector. Boardwalk Real Estate (BEI.UN.TO), Choice Properties (CHP.UN.TO), Interrent Real Estate Investment (IIP.UN.TO) and H&R Real Estate (HR.UN.TO) are up 2 to 2.5%.

Consumer staples shares Weston George (WN.TO), Maple Leaf Foods (MFI.TO), Premium Brands Holdings Corp (PBH.TO), Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.TO), Saputo (SAP.TO) and Empire Company (EMP.A.TO) are gaining 1 to 2%.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed car registrations in Canada decreased to 132,260 Units in October from 139,531 Units in September of 2022