Turkey’s economy weighs on markets

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index closed in the red Monday along with U.S. markets as concerns about economic instability in Turkey continued to weigh globally.

“The clear headliner today that’s sapping a bit of the optimism in the markets is worries about what’s happening in Turkey and the plunge in their currency,” said Craig Fehr, a Canadian markets strategist with Edward Jones in St. Louis.

Markets were rattled late last week as concerns over the country’s monetary policy debt levels, and a dispute with the U.S. sent the Turkish lira sharply down.

The instability in the country has raised concerns that cracks are showing in the global landscape, but Fehr said the country’s credit system isn’t integrated enough into the global credit system to cause major shocks. “While there can be some pain from the drop in the currency, and some pain from any potential debt challenges there, I don’t view this as a catalyst that would spark contagion in global markets.”

On Monday Turkey’s central bank announced measures to help the country’s banks manage their liquidity, but the Turkish lira and Turkey’s stock market continued to slide.

North American markets had turned slightly positive on news of the action but ended down on the day.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 75.76 points at 16,250.75 as gold and energy stocks dropped. The index hit an intraday high of 16,371.81 points while volume on the index totalled 169.2 million.

Gold stocks had some of the steepest losses as investors fled to the safety of the U.S. dollar. That pushed the December gold contract down US$20.10 to US$1,198.90, the first time since March 2017 that it fell below US$1,200.

The S&P/TSX Global Gold index was down 2.6 per cent, while mining major Barrick Gold Corp. closed down 3.2 per cent and Goldcorp Inc. was down 3.3 per cent.

The energy index was down 0.9 per cent as the September crude contract closed down 43 cents at US$67.20 per barrel on less risk appetite.

“On a day like this when the fears are perhaps translating back to trade fears, tariff fears and ultimately global growth fears, we’re seeing it show up a little bit in global oil prices,” said Fehr.

The S&P/TSX capped consumer stables index had the highest gains for the day at 0.5 per cent after being under pressure last week on losses from auto parts producers.

In New York, the Dow Jones ended down 125.44 points at 25,187.70. The S&P 500 index closed down 11.35 points at 2,821.93, while the Nasdaq composite was down 19.40 points at 7,819.71.

The Canadian dollar averaged 76.13 cents US, down 0.13 of a US cent.

The September natural gas contract dropped a cent to end at US$2.93 per mmBTU and the September copper contract fell a penny to US$2.73 a pound.

meanwhile, Home Capital Group Inc. said it earned nearly $30 million in its most recent quarter, but fell just short of analyst estimates. The Toronto-based mortgage lender’s net income for the second quarter of its 2018 financial year was $29.6 million compared to a $111.1 million loss in the same quarter the previous year.

Its diluted earnings per share were 37 cents for the quarter ended June 30, compared to a loss of $1.73 per share in the second quarter of its 2017 financial year.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters Eikon estimated a net income of $31.16 million or 38 cents per share for the quarter.

CEO Yousry Bissada said the company experienced its third consecutive quarter of mortgage origination volume growth, up 10 per cent or $112.1 million from $1.12 billion in the second quarter of 2017 to $1.23 billion in the second quarter of this financial year.