Canada's main stock index had a mixed start Tuesday, even as higher crude prices helped underpin energy stocks. The Wall Street stock market, where key indexes were weaker at the opening bell, traders were waiting for tomorrow's reading on U.S. inflation for signals about the Federal Reserve's future direction on rates.
ET, the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was down 3.01 points, or 0.01 percent, at 20179.75.
At the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 43.70 points, or 0.13 percent, at 34,620.02. The S&P 500 closed down by 141.9 points, or 0.32 percent, at 4,473.27, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped by 58.96 points, or 0.42 percent, to 138.049.94 at the end of the day.
Markets are still waiting on the U.S. inflation report, which comes ahead of the Federal Reserve's Sept. 20 rate decision. Economists are forecasting the annual rate of core inflation to fall to 4.3 percent in August, while headline inflation is expected to tick up to 3.6 percent.
Markets expect the central bank to stay steady next week and have priced in about a 45-percent chance of an increase by the end of the year.
SPI Asset Management's managing partner, Stephen Innex, said in an early note that his company's resilience remained robust.
Investors from Roots Inc. received earnings ahead of trading in Canada.
Roots posted a loss of $5.3-million or 13 cents a share in the most recent quarter, compared to a loss of $3.2 million or 8 cents a year earlier. The second-quarter sales totalled $49.4 million, up 3.4 percent from $47.8 million a year earlier.
Later Tuesday, Apple will hold its latest product launch, where it is expected to reveal details of the new iPhone 15.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 slid 0.19 per cent, giving up early gains. The UK's FTSE 100 was up 0.32 per cent at about 1.58 at the end of the day. Germany's CAC 40 and France's DAX were down 0.64 per cent and 0.38 per cent at the end of the day.
In Asia, Nikkei closed up 0.95 per cent in Asia, ending a three-day losing streak. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong slid 0.39 per cent on Tuesday, down from a previous high of 0.39 per cent.
Crude prices rose, as Brent continues to trade above US$90 a barrel, as traders await key economic data later in the week.
The day range of Brent is US$90.52 to US$91.19 in the early premarket period. The range on West Texas Intermediate is U.S.$87.22 to U.S.$87.97.
The rest of the nation is still buoyed by voluntary production curbs through the rest of the nation, which are Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Ed Moya, OANDA's senior analyst, said Monday that the agency's latest figures show the company has a net loss of about 100 percent.
Later today, investors will get weekly U.S. inventory figures from the American Petroleum Institute. More official government numbers follow Wednesday morning from the Energy Information Administration.
Crude inventories were predicted to have fallen by about 2 million barrels in the week to Sept. 8, according to a preliminary Reuters poll.
In other commodities, spot gold was down 0.1 percent at US$1,919.29 by early Tuesday, while U.S. gold futures dipped 0.3 percent to US$1,942.10.
The Canadian dollar was down slightly in early trading, while the U.S. dollar remained firm following its biggest one-day drop against a group of world currencies since July.
The Loonie's value on the day was 73.55 US cents to 73.69 US cents in the early premarket period. The loonie has been down about 0.50 percent against the greenback since the beginning of September.
Shaun Osborne, Scotiabank's chief FX strategist, said in a statement.
No major Canadian economic releases will be released on Tuesday.
The US dollar index rose 0.2 per cent to 104.76 after falling 0.46 per cent in the previous session, its biggest one-day drop since July 13.
The euro fell 0.3 per cent after hitting a one-week high of US$1.0771 before the European Central Bank's policy announcement on Thursday.
The pound was down 0.2 percent against the dollar against the U.S. dollar at US$1.2479.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was slightly lower at 4.284 percent in the predawn period.
U.S. NFIB Small Business Economic Trends survey for August, released by the NFIB.