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Canadian stock market falls on U.S. political scandals

Xinhua, May 18, 2017 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock index fell Wednesday due to global market concerns that U.S. President Trump's pro-business economic agenda could be slowed by political scandals.

It was the largest drop for the index since last September. Financial stocks leading declines.

U.S. media confirmed Tuesday a report from The New York Times that former FBI Director James Comey put together a memo outlining a conversation in which President Donald Trump allegedly asked him to stop an investigation into Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser.

The TSX closed down 269.65 points, or 1.73 percent, at 15,273.68. The Canadian dollar eased backward 0.02 cents to 0.73.45 U.S dollar.

All of the index's 10 main groups closed lower. Eight of them fell more than one percent. The materials sector, which include mining stocks, was the lone gainer, adding 0.4 percent partly on the back of higher gold prices.

Bullion hit a two-week high as the Trump scandals and weak U.S. economic data trimmed expectations the Federal Reserve would aggressively raise interest rates this year, pushing the U.S. dollar to its weakest level in six months.

The materials sector, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, fell 0.6 percent even as gains for gold stocks helped temper declines. Endit