Investors settle into quiet holiday mode

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index and its American peers posted minor losses in a low-volume trading session on Friday ahead of the Christmas holiday weekend.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 17.36 points to 16165.27, with the gold sector leading major advancers.

The February gold contract was up $8.20 to $1,278.80 US an ounce.

South or the border, a subdued week of trading came to a close on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 28.23 points to 24754.06. The S&P 500 index inched down 1.23 points to 2683.34 and the Nasdaq composite index gave back 8.53 points to 6956.83.

“You really can’t read too much into market movements in a pre-holiday trading session today. The volumes are quite anemic across the board,” said Ian Scott, equity analyst at Manulife Asset Management.

“U.S. volumes are down 27 per cent from average volumes. Canadian volumes are off almost 25 per cent from average volumes.”

In economic news, Statistics Canada reported Canada’s economy took a pause in October, with gross domestic product unchanged from the previous month.

Analysts had estimated that Canada’s GDP would grow 0.2 per cent from September, based on some of the recent October economic data released this week by Statistics Canada.

In currency markets, the Canadian dollar closed at an average trading price of 78.38 cents US, down 0.15 of a U.S. cent.

In commodities, the February crude contract was up 11 cents to $58.47 US per barrel and the February natural gas contract was up seven cents to $2.66 US per mmBTU. The March copper contract was up two cents to $3.24 US a pound.

Canadian markets will be closed Dec. 25 and Dec. 26. American markets will be closed Dec. 25.