Global concerns weighted Canada’s stock exchange today.
The International Monetary Fund predicted that the world’s economy will grow at a 3.7 percent rate into 2019, down from the 3.9 percent projected three months ago.
This marked the first downgrade since July 2016.
The biggest culprit is tensions between the U.S. and its trading partners, most notably China, with tariffs on billions of dollars of goods from both sides now in full swing.
The relatively dim economic outlook caused jitters on Bay Street as the TSX fell 92 points with nine of 11 sectors trading lower.
Health care moved up 1.5 percent, however, with the mercurial pot stocks gaining, led by a 3.3 percent increase in Aurora Cannabis, the most actively traded company on the index.
In New York, rising interest rates along with fears of the global economy plateauing pushed the Dow lower. The index dropped 56 points despite gains in Apple and McDonald’s.
Weighting the index was industrial heavyweight Caterpillar losing 2.5 percent.
The Nasdaq was level, moving up seven points with gains in market movers Tesla, Netflix, and Amazon. Google parent Alphabet was the lone lag among the FANG stocks as it lost 0.9 percent.
Crude prices edged higher as supply concerns once again bubbled to the surface, as Hurricane Michael impacted offshore wells along the Gulf of Mexico, and Iranian exports dipped in advance of U.S. sanctions against the oil-producing country.
Oil rose 38 cents to $74.67 US a barrel.
The loonie was flat against its U.S. counterpart, slipping 2/100ths of a cent to $0.7721 US, while gold jumped $4.90 to $1,190 an ounce.
Meanwhile, Aurora Cannabis announced today that it has filed an application to list its common shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
The application is subject to the approval of the NYSE.
The company hopes to begin trading on the NYSE by the end of the month.
If the application is approved, Aurora’s shares will trade on the NYSE under ticker symbol “ACB”, the same symbol as it uses on the TSX.
