Trade and marijuana drove Canada’s stock exchange today.
The TSX opened higher on Thursday with hints of progress in Canada/U.S. trade negotiations, during their second day of talks to re-work NAFTA.
But the index lost ground as the trading day wore on, falling 36 points with energy being the biggest drag, dropping nearly two percent.
Cannabis-producers were once again among the most actively traded companies on the TSX, and with very mixed results.
Share prices of Aurora Cannabis, Canopy, and Cronos dropped between 2.8 and seven percent while Aphria and Hydropothecary saw massive gains of 15 and 20 percent, respectively.
On Wall Street, the Dow managed to move into the green despite Trump’s threats to impose $200 billion worth of fresh tariffs on Chinese goods. The Dow finished 20 points higher.
Offsetting U.S./China trade tensions was a ADP National Employment Report that shows America’s private sector adding 163,000 jobs last month.
Meanwhile, Nasdaq’s descent continued as tech stocks tumbled.
After near triple digit losses on Wednesday, the Nasdaq lost another 72 points with three of four FANG stocks taking a hit. Facebook shares declined 2.8 percent, Amazon fell 1.8 percent, and Google parent Alphabet dropped 1.2 percent.
Oil prices slipped 81 cents to $67.91 a barrel on worries over declining demand and U.S./China trade tensions.
And the dollar gained on the greenback, moving  up 20/100ths of a cent to $0.7607 US while gold rose $4.10 to $1,200 an ounce.
