Canadian Stocks Close Slightly Lower After Seeing Early Strength

(RTTNews) - After moving to the upside early in the session, Canadian stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Monday.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index pulled back well off its early highs and spent much of the day lingering near the unchanged line before closing down 43.95 points or 0.1 percent at 31,483.44.

The early strength on Bay Street reflected an extension of the recovery attempt seen during last Friday's session, when the S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down by a relatively modest 0.4 percent after slumping by as much as 1.1 percent in early trading.

Buying interest waned over the course of the trading day, however, with traders looking ahead to the release of key U.S. economic data in the coming days.

Energy stocks helped lead the subsequent pullback by the markets, dragging the S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index down by 1.4 percent.

The weakness among energy stocks comes amid a steep drop by the price of crude oil, as crude for January delivery tumbled $0.62 or 1.1 percent to $56.82 a barrel amid oversupply concerns.

In economic news, Statistics Canada released a report showing Canadian consumer prices rose 2.2 percent on a year-over-year basis in November, matching the increase in October.

A separate Statistics Canada report said Canadian manufacturing sales decreased 1.0 percent in October, driven by lower sales in the chemical, wood product and transportation equipment subsectors.