Canadian Stocks Turn Lower Amid Tech Sell-Off On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks moved to the upside in early trading on Thursday but came under pressure over the course of the session.

After reaching a one-month intraday high of 21,471.05, the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index slid 102.04 points or 0.5 percent to 21,292.96.

Technology stocks helped lead the way lower amid a sell-off by their U.S. peers, with the S&P/TSX Capped Information Technology Index plunging by 2.7 percent.

Significant weakness was also visible among healthcare stocks, as reflected by the 2.8 percent slump by the S&P/TSX Capped Health Care Index.

Materials, gold and energy stocks also moved to the downside over the course of the session, while considerable strength remained visible among consumer discretionary stocks.

Traders were digesting another reading on U.S. inflation, with a report from the Labor Department showing only a slight uptick in U.S. producer prices in the month of December.

The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand edged up by 0.2 percent in December after jumping by an upwardly revised 1.0 percent in November.

Economists had expected producer prices to rise by 0.4 percent compared to the 0.8 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.

The report also showed the annual rate of producer growth slowed to 9.7 percent in December from a record high 9.8 percent in November.