The Toronto Stock Exchange's main index shed 42.11 points in a broad-based retreat as investors closely watched Bombardier's stock awaiting a legal ruling from the U.S.

"There's not a lot of movement out there today," said Norman Levine, managing director of Portfolio Management Corp.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed at 15,474.12, with all but one subsector in the red.

On Wall Street, the markets were mixed. The Dow Jones industrial average retreated 11.77 points to 22,284.32. The S&P 500 index advanced 0.18 of a point to 2,496.84 and the Nasdaq composite index rose 9.57 points to 6,380.16.

"What everybody's waiting for today in Canada is what's going to happen to Bombardier," he said.

Investors awaited a preliminary decision from the U.S. Department of Commerce on imposing preliminary countervailing duties on sales of CSeries planes.

Boeing has accused Bombardier of using government subsidies to sell its CSeries passenger jets to Delta Air Lines last year at what Boeing calls an unfairly low price.

Bombardier (TSX:BBD.B) shares jumped more than six per cent or 13 cents to $2.27 on Tuesday.

While the decision will impact Bombardier, it will have little ripple effect on the overall market, said Levine, noting the company's market capitalization.

In currency markets, the loonie was trading at an average price of 80.84 cents US, down 0.19 of a U.S. cent.

The November crude contract fell 34 cents to US$51.88 per barrel and the November natural gas contract rose 1.2 cents to US$3.00 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract lost US$9.80 to US$1,301.70 an ounce and the December copper contract declined about 1.9 cents to roughly US$2.92 a pound.