China worries fuel TSX decline as market eyes Fed

By John Tilak

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index dipped on Wednesday as sluggish economic data from China spurred declines in most major sectors, while the market awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve's comments on its bond buying program.

Investors closely watched as China, a big consumer of Canada's commodity exports, warned of a "grim" outlook for trade after a surprise fall in June exports, raising fresh concerns about the extent of the slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

The market will also be looking for clues about the outlook for U.S. monetary policy by the Fed when it releases minutes from a June policy meeting at 1800 GMT.

"We may get some insight into what the Federal Reserve is thinking," said Fred Ketchen, director of equity trading at ScotiaMcLeod. "But I don't think there's going to be anything surprising to come out of the Fed minutes.

"I don't think we're going to see a definitive decision by the Fed in giving us a date (to begin its stimulus pullback)," he added.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> was down 24.57 points, or 0.20 percent, at 12,272.52.

Eight of the 10 main sectors on the index were in the red.

BlackBerry tumbled 5.3 percent to C$9.66 after an analyst said initial sales of its new mid-tier Q5 device were weak in the United Kingdom, while sales of its other BlackBerry 10 handsets remained lackluster.

The decline comes a day after the smartphone maker faced tough questions about its future at its annual general meeting. As a result, the information technology group gave back 1.3 percent, showing the sharpest decline of the major sectors.

Financials, the index's most heavily weighted sector, lost 0.2 percent. Royal Bank of Canada , the country's biggest lender, gave back 0.4 percent to C$61.29, and Bank of Montreal fell 0.5 percent to C$62.24.

The materials sector, which includes mining stocks, slipped 0.2 percent despite a gain in gold-mining stocks.

Miner Teck Resources Ltd was down 1.6 percent at C$22.03.

But shares of energy producers gained 0.3 percent after oil prices climbed.

(Additional reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tsx-may-open-higher-fed-minutes-eyed-124417506.html

dwyane wade nascar anna nicole smith Meagan Good janelle monae Jessica Korda tour de france