Canadian Stocks Climb Well Off Worst Levels But Close Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks staged a notable recovery after coming under pressure in early trading on Wednesday but moved back to the downside going into the close.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended the day down 53.56 points or 0.3 percent at 20,818.58, well off its worst levels of the session.

The modestly lower close on the day came following the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting.

While the minutes reiterated Fed officials widely expect to begin lowering rates in 2024, they also highlighted an "unusually elevated degree of uncertainty" about the outlook.

Gold stocks turned in some of the market's worst performances on the day, dragging the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index down by 2.1 percent.

The weakness among gold stocks came amid a steep drop by the price of the precious metal, with gold for February delivery tumbling $30.60 or 1.5 percent to $2,042.80 an ounce.

Consumer discretionary, real estate and technology stocks are also seeing notable weakness, while energy stocks bucked the downtrend and moved sharply higher along with the price of crude oil.

With crude for February delivery surging $2.32 or 3.3 percent to $72.70 a barrel, the S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index spiked by 3.4 percent.