TSX Ends Lower As Trade Worries Linger

(RTTNews) - Save for a few minutes in the first hour of trading, the Canadian stock market was down in the red on Tuesday as the ongoing U.S.-China trade conflict and its likely impact on global economic outlook weighed on sentiment and prompted investors to refrain from making significant moves.

Energy, healthcare, financial and industrials shares were among the prominent losers.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended down by 49.20 points, or 0.3%, at 16,297.46. The index scaled a low of 16,266.33 and a high of 16,355.47 in the session.

ARC Resources (ARX.TO) and Suncor Energy (SU.TO) ended lower by 1.75% and 1.3%, respectively. Encana Corporation (ECA.TO) declined 0.85%.

In the financial space, Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) ended 0.6% down. The bank reported second-quarter net income of $2.26 billion, up from $2.18 billion a year earlier, driven by earnings fro its international footprint.

The bank's earnings per share in the second quarter was $1.73, compared with $1.70 a year earlier.

Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) also ended lower by 0.6%. Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC.TO) declined 1.9%.

Shares of heavy-duty machinery parts dealer and distributor Finning International Inc. (FTT.TO) declined 2.4%.

Among miners, Kinross Gold Corporation (K.TO) jumped nearly 3%. Kirkland Lake Gold (KL.TO) ended modestly higher and Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX.TO) declined marginally.

Among the stocks in the Healthcare index, Hexo Corp. (HEXO.TO) gained 2.25% and Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) gained 0.53%, while Aphria Inc. (APHA.TO) plunged nearly 5%.

U.S. stocks ended notably lower due to concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.

The Dow slumped 0.9%, the Nasdaq shed 0.4% and the S&P 500 ended lower by 0.8%.

The market was weighed down by President Donald Trump's comments that U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods could "go up very, very substantially, very easily."

Trump also said the U.S. is "not ready to make a deal" and suggested China probably wishes "they made the deal that they had on the table before they tried to renegotiate it."

Earlier, Trump had expressed optimism about U.S. and China reaching a trade agreement, saying "I think, sometime in the future, China and the United States will absolutely have a great trade deal. And we look forward to that."

The major European markets ended weak on trade worries. Asian markets moved mostly higher on Tuesday.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July ended up $0.51, or 0.9%, at $59.14 a barrel.

Gold futures for June ended down $6.50, or 0.5%, at $1,277.10 an ounce.

Silver futures for July ended down $0.235, at $14.320 an ounce, while Copper futures for July settled at $2.6960 per pound, losing $0.0035 in the session.