MONEY IN BRIEF
Currencies
OTTAWA (CP) — These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Thursday. Quotations in Canadian funds. Australia dollar 0.9678 Brazil real 0.3434 China renminbi 0.1947 Euro 1.5254 Hong Kong dollar 0.1716 India rupee 0.01891 Indonesia rupiah 0.000092
Japan yen 0.01191
Malaysia ringgit 0.3219 Mexico peso 0.06555
N.Z. dollar 0.9218
Norway krone 0.1572 Peruvian new sol 0.3968 Russia rouble 0.02002
Saudi riyal 0.3573 Singapore dollar 0.9785
South Africa rand 0.09502 South Korean won 0.001196 Sweden krona 0.149 Switzerland franc 1.3502 Taiwanese dollar 0.04342 Thailand baht 0.04079 Turkey lira 0.2508 U.K. pound 1.7131 U.S. dollar 1.3404
Vietnam dong 0.000057
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — North American stock markets partially recovered from deep losses Thursday amid falling oil prices and worries that the arrest of a senior executive at Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei could derail progress in China-U.S. trade talks. Nervousness pervaded markets early as hopeful signs about a trade truce between the world’s two largest economies disappeared overnight with the arrest, said Candice Bangsund, portfolio manager for Fiera Capital. “Markets have just been whipsawed today, right at the open the market just collapsed a couple per cent. It seems to be making up a little bit of ground here this afternoon but it looks like it’s still going to be a sea of red across equity markets today,” she said in an interview. Bangsund said there have been no signs yet of a pullback in the agreement reached at the G20 meeting or retaliation from China.
“But I think that there’s just a lot of speculation that this is going to sour the relations between the U.S. and China at a very sensitive time.” In addition, ongoing uncertainty about crude production after an agreement wasn’t reached at Thursday’s OPEC meeting in Vienna weighed on crude prices and equity markets.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 1.6 per cent, losing 245.64 points to reach a five-week low of 14,937. At one point in the day, the TSX lost more than 400 points to reach 14,773.86.
The influential energy sector was the big loser, falling 5.4 per cent to wipe out Wednesday’s gains. Other key sectors including industrials, financials and materials were also down. Health care closed up 6.6 per cent as cannabis producer Aphria Inc. rebounded from three days of share losses with a 51 per cent gain on the day after a special committee of independent directors was appointed to review the company’s acquisition of LATAM Holdings Inc., which has been criticized by short-sellers. Energy shares fell as the January crude oil contract was down US$1.40 at US$51.49 per barrel. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average rebounded from a 780-point plunge to lose 79.40 points at 24,947.67. The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 74.60 cents US compared with an average of 74.89 cents US on Wednesday.