MONEY IN BRIEF

Currencies

OTTAWA (CP) — These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Monday. Quotations in Canadian funds. Australia dollar 0.9275

Brazil real 0.3482 China renminbi 0.1878

Euro 1.5053

Hong Kong dollar 0.1658

India rupee 0.01761 Indonesia rupiah 0.000085 Japan yen 0.01162 Malaysia ringgit 0.3126 Mexico peso 0.06906

N.Z. dollar 0.8504 Norway krone 0.1594 Peruvian new sol 0.3894 Russia rouble 0.01982 Saudi riyal 0.3463 Singapore dollar 0.9442 South Africa rand 0.09045 South Korean won 0.00115 Sweden krona 0.1452 Switzerland franc 1.3163 Taiwanese dollar 0.0421 Thailand baht 0.0398 Turkey lira 0.2248

U.K. pound 1.7091

U.S. dollar 1.2993 Vietnam dong 0.000056

The markets today

TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index resumed last week’s selloff by closing down slightly on Monday despite strong gains by the cannabis-heavy health sector just days before the drug’s legalization.

The markets are just trying to find a little

bit of footing at the start of the corporate earnings season after last week’s spike in volatility, said Craig Fehr, Canadian markets strategist for Edward Jones. North American markets lost ground during the day after ending Friday on the upswing following a few days of heavy losses.

“I think we’re going to get this kind of tennis match between the ongoing anxiety of the selloff and probably the positive news of corporate earnings and that probably can keep the markets bouncing around,” he said in an interview from San Francisco.

“I expect volatility to continue this week, probably not to the degrees we saw last week but I think the balance between those two forces at the moment are probably going to keep the markets a little bit on edge this week.”

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down slightly, losing 4.82 points to 15,409.47, after dipping to a low of 15,398.47 on 246.8 million shares traded. The health care sector gained 6.7 per cent, followed by gold. Information technology, energy and financial sectors were the biggest losers on the day. Energy was down on some geopolitical concerns related to the suspected death of a Washington Post columnist after he had entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey.

Most cannabis stocks enjoyed solid gains as the enthusiasm that has driven the sector higher continued.

Fehr expects the exuberance will continue past Wednesday’s legalization of recreational cannabis use.

“I don’t think that that has to necessarily come an end just because of legalization but I think the enthusiasm will wane once the kind of the shimmer wears off this newness to the growth story here.”