By MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, April 17 (MarketsFarm) – The Canadian dollar inched up above 75 U.S. cents on Wednesday, as stocks and oil values weakened.
The Canadian dollar closed at US$.7501 or US$1=C$1.3332, down from Tuesday’s close of US$.7484 or US$1=C$1.3361.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 42.02 points to close at 16,544.24, thanks to strong performances by energy stocks.
The NASDAQ closed down, losing 4.15 at 7,996.08 points. Similarly, The Dow Jones lost 3.12 points to close at 26,449.54. The S&P 500 Index was down 1.48 points, closing at 2,907.06 points.
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Stock indexes took a hit in the health-care sector amid concerns about United States policy changes. “Health providers and hospital operators have come under pressure as national politicians debate the merits of expanding Medicare to all Americans, a move that has the power to upend earnings models for large parts of the system” according to a report from Bloomberg.
“While there is still no convincing evidence legislative changes will have any negative impact on this year‘s earnings, it doesn’t help to have a major headwind emerge for an industry that was expected to be a driver of a second-half profit rebound,” said Alec Young, managing director of global markets research for FTSE Russell, to Bloomberg.
Oil prices dropped across the board on Wednesday, as West Texas Intermediate dropped 30 cents to US$63.75 and Brent Crude dropped 12 cents to US$71.60.
Canada’s agricultural sector fared as follows:
AGT Food and Ingredients——-up $ 0.04 at $ 17.99
Buhler Industries————–dn $ 0.01 at $ 3.61
Linamar Corp ——————up $ 0.60 at $ 52.33
Maple Leaf Foods—————dn $ 0.26 at $ 30.74
Nutrien Ltd. ——————up $ 0.75 at $ 71.93
Ritchie Bros Auctioneers Inc.–up $ 0.79 at $ 46.16
Rocky Mountain Dealership Inc.-dn $ 0.32 at $ 9.29
(All figures are in Canadian dollars.)
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