Canadian Stocks Giving Back Ground After Early Move To The Upside

After initially extending last week’s rally, Canadian stocks have moved mostly lower over the course of the trading session on Monday.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index has pulled back well off its highs of the session and into negative territory.

The index reached a new record intraday high just shy of 34,000 in early trading but is currently down 150.97 points or 0.5 percent at 33,666.54.

The downturn on Bay Street may partly reflect profit taking following the strong upward move seen over the three previous sessions.

Canadian stocks reacted positively to last Friday’s news of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down most of President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, but the ruling has now led to renewed trade uncertainty.

Trump announced in a post on Truth Social on Saturday that he would be raising worldwide tariffs to the “fully allowed” and “legally tested” 15 percent level from the 10 percent he announced shortly after the ruling.

“During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again – GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!” Trump said.

Technology stocks are turning in some of the market’s worst performances on the day, with the S&P/TSX Capped Information Technology Index plunging by 3.3 percent.

Industrial, consumer discretionary and financial stocks are also seeing notable weakness, while materials and consumer staples stocks have shown strong moves to the upside.

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