The Toronto Stock Exchange was down moderately Tuesday after a report showed Canada's annual inflation rate had declined last month and sales of existing U.S. homes came in worse than expected.
At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index was down about 15 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 11,925. Energy was the biggest detriment. Health care saw gains as drug maker Biovail Corp. gained about 10 per cent to trade at $18.70, following a merger announcement a day earlier. That was on top of the nearly 15 per cent surge in the stock on Monday.
Statistics Canada on Tuesday said the country's consumer prices were up 1.4 per cent in May compared to a year earlier, down from 1.8 per cent in April. The core inflation rate was 1.7 per cent, down from 1.9 per cent the previous month.
South of the border, the National Association of Realtors said home resales were down 2.2 per cent to an annual rate of 5.66 million last month. Economists were expecting sales to rise to 6.12 million.
As for commodities, crude oil was up 26 cents to $78.08 U.S. a barrel in New York, reversing earlier declines, while gold fell 80 cents to $1,239.90 U.S. an ounce.
The Canadian dollar was up 44 basis points to 98.06 cents U.S..
U.S. markets were up modestly. While the home-sales report seemed to affect certain stocks, there was strength in the technology sector after Apple Inc. received some analyst upgrades. Apple was up 1.62 per cent to $274.54 U.S. at midday. The Dow Jones industrial average was up about 30 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 10,470. The Nasdaq composite index gained around 20 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 2,310.
