TSX pulled lower by resources

The Toronto stock market closed lower Friday as steep declines in the energy, gold and metals sectors took back some of the gains seen earlier in the week, while data showed the U.S. economy was weaker than expected in the first quarter. The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 109.31 points to 12,220.20 as the U.S. government reported that gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 2.5 per cent in the first quarter.

Economists had expected growth of three per cent.

The loonie was up of 0.38 of a cent (U.S.) at 98.34 cents. New York markets were mixed as the Dow Jones industrial average rose 11.75 points to 14,712.55.

The Nasdaq lost 10.73 points to 3,279.26 and the S&P 500 was down 2.92 at 1,582.24.

The TSX Venture up 0.55 of a point to 965.22. Despite coming i n below expectations, U.S. GDP growth for the first three months of 2013 was still much better than the 0.4 per cent reported in the final quarter of 2012. “The GDP report did miss consensus but, overall, it’s still a very positive number,” said Jeff Bradacs, portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management. Economists forecast that the U.S. GDP will continue to slow in the April-to-June quarter to a rate of just two per cent growth, and stay at that level for the rest of the year. The majority of sectors on the Toronto exchange were down, led by steep declines in base metals, gold and energy as weak GDP figures depressed commodity prices. Metals and mining saw the largest decrease with a 4.53 per cent drop as May copper moved down five cents to $3.18 a pound. The gold sector fell 3.74 per cent as June bullion closed down $8.40 to $1,453.60 an ounce, but that was still a big improvement after plunging last week to $1,361 an ounce, its lowest level in more than two years. The energy sector slipped 1.14 per cent while the June crude contract fell 64 cents to $93 a barrel.