By Adriano Marchese
Toronto stocks were firmly lower Friday mid-trading, with tech stocks leading the decline. Most sectors were in the red at midday, with materials and tech-services stocks also lower. Only process industries logged notable gains in the session.
Canadian industries in the country operated at 78.5% of their production capacity in the July-to-September period, Statistics Canada said. That's a 0.9-percentage-point increase from the previous quarter, helped by recovery in oil and gas extraction and the first rise in capacity utilization in the construction industry in a little over two years, said the agency.
Canadian wholesale trade increased 0.1% in October, building on recent strength for the sector thanks to a rise in sales of vehicles and parts, Statistics Canada also reported.
On the building front, the agency said, the total value of building permits increased 14.9% from the month before to a seasonally adjusted 13.82 billion Canadian dollars, the equivalent of US$10.03 billion.
Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 1% to 31350.47 and the blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 declined by 0.8% to 1839.40.
Canadian cannabis stocks surged on a Washington Post report that President Trump plans to call for the reclassification of cannabis to a schedule III drug. Tilray, Aurora, Canopy and Cronos Group were the main leaders, rising 28%, 15%, 33% and 8.4% respectively.
Other market movers:
CAE said it has won a contract valued at C$270 million to deliver a new air-mission training system for the Royal Australian Air Force. Shares rose 2.8% to C$40.06.
Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-12-25 1216ET
