DEVELOPING Person on fire outside Trump's hush money trial rushed away on a stretcher
A person who was on fire in a park outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump’s hush money trial is taking place has been rushed away on a stretcher.
Canada's main stock index snapped a two-day rally as the technology sector was weighed down by plunging Nuvei Corp. shares following a critical report by a short seller.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 85.30 points to 21,077.35 after posting its strongest back-to-back sessions in more than 10 months.
“What we probably saw with the two-day streak was maybe a bit of bargain-hunting or short-covering, but it just seems to me like that was a bit of a relief rally and that things hadn't actually changed very much in terms of news,” said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at SIA Wealth Management.
In New York, stock markets also rose. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 35.32 points at 35,754.75. The S&P 500 index was up 14.46 points at 4,701.21, while the Nasdaq composite was up 100.07 points at 15,786.99.
The tech sector was the biggest laggard on the day, losing 2.2 per cent as Nuvei shares dropped as much as 55.6 per cent. They closed down 40 per cent following a report from short-seller Spruce Point Capital Management that raised concerns about Nuvei chief executive Philip Fayer and the company's growth record and acquisition strategy.
Cieszynski said Canada's tech sector is so small that any sizable moves by one company can have an oversized impact on the sector's performance.
Seven of the 11 major sectors on the TSX were lower, with industrials down one per cent even though Air Canada shares gained 2.1 per cent in keeping with the upswing of the U.S. travel sector.
Energy was up half a per cent on slightly higher crude oil prices after weekly U.S. stockpiles fell less than expected at 240,000 barrels to 432.9 million barrels due to rising imports and another release from the U.S. strategic oil reserves.
The January crude oil contract was up 31 cents at US$72.36 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was up 10.7 cents at nearly US$3.82 per mmBTU.
Shares of Suncor Energy Inc. were down 1.2 per cent.
Materials was higher on increased metals prices.
The February gold contract was up 80 cents US at US$1,785.50 an ounce and the March copper contract was up 5.4 cents at US$4.39 a pound.
The Canadian dollar was relatively flat after the Bank of Canada failed to surprise. It said Wednesday it is keeping its trendsetting rate at the rock-bottom level of 0.25 per cent until some time between April and September next year, which is unchanged from its previous guidance.
The loonie traded for 79.10 cents US compared with 78.99 cents US on Tuesday.
“Maybe they might have highlighted the disruptions from the B.C. landslides, but even then the markets have known about that for a few weeks,” Cieszynski said.
“I don't think there's anything really in particular that's driving the markets today. It's just a case where we've had this fairly solid selloff over 10 days and then we've had a bit of a relief rally here, but there wasn't anything really changed to make anybody more positive.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2021.
A person who was on fire in a park outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump’s hush money trial is taking place has been rushed away on a stretcher.
Soulful gospel artist Mandisa, a Grammy-winning singer who got her start as a contestant on 'American Idol' in 2006, has died, according to a statement on her verified social media. She was 47.
Scottish comedian Samantha Hannah was working on a comedy show about finding a husband when Toby Hunter came into her life. What happened next surprised them both.
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
Police in Sault Ste. Marie charged a 22-year-old man with animal cruelty following an attack on a dog Thursday morning.
The Body Shop Canada is exploring a sale as it struggles to get its hands on enough inventory to keep up with "robust" sales after announcing it would file for creditor protection and close 33 stores.
Ontario Provincial Police have landed a suspect following a fishy theft in Beachburg, Ont.
The U.S.’s Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a video that appears to show unauthorized personnel in the cockpit of a charted Colorado Rockies flight to Toronto.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.