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Canada’s main stock index snapped an 11-day winning streak to come off its record high on Monday after a report stated that the mood in China over a trade deal with the United States is “pessimistic” due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s reluctance to roll back tariffs.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 3.36 points, or 0.02 per cent, at 17,025.11.

Five of the index’s 11 major sectors were lower, led by a 4.4-per-cent drop by the healthcare sector.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. fell 16.4 per cent, while Aphria Inc. and Hexo Corp. were down 11 per cent and 10.2 per cent, respectively.

The energy sector fell 1.6 per cent as crude prices slid.

The financials sector finished marginally lower, while the industrials sector added 0.2 per cent.

Global equity markets edged higher on Monday, lifting prices of U.S. government debt, as a new 90-day extension allowing U.S. companies to do business with China’s Huawei eased the latest spike in investor angst over U.S.-Sino trade tensions.

The three major U.S. stock indexes set fresh intraday highs while MSCI’s gauge of equity performance worldwide rose to within 1 per cent of a record peak set in January 2018.

The stock rally reversed earlier losses sparked by conflicting reports about the outlook for ending the 16-month trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has weighed on global growth and roiled capital markets.

The U.S. Commerce Department added Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to an economic blacklist in May, citing security concerns, but has allowed it to purchase some American-made goods in a series of 90-day license extensions.

Early on Monday, a CNBC report cast fresh doubts about the prospects for a phase I of a U.S.-China trade deal, saying the mood in Beijing was pessimistic due to President Donald Trump’s reluctance to roll back tariffs on Chinese imports.

The report halted earlier rallies in Europe and Asia after Chinese state media Xinhua over the weekend said that Washington and Beijing had held “constructive” talks.

“Progress doesn’t happen in a straight line and that is starting to frustrate people today,” said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments in Raleigh, North Carolina. “It feels very herky-jerky.”

MSCI’s all-country world index of global stock performance gained 0.13 per cent.

In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 index closed down 0.01 per cent while the FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading regional shares fell 0.04 per cent.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 31.26 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 28,036.15, the S&P 500 gained 1.55 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 3,122.01 and the Nasdaq Composite added 9.11 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 8,549.94

The safe-haven Japanese yen gained and gold prices erased losses to settle slightly higher.

Investors hope that tariffs the United States and China have imposed on each other’s goods will be rolled back as they are seen as harming global economic growth.

Overnight in Asia, stocks closed higher.

Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.49 per cent and China’s blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.8 per cent after the People’s Bank of China in a surprise move said it was lowering the seven-day reverse repurchase rate.

The dollar index fell 0.22 per cent, with the euro up 0.22 per cent to $1.1074. The yen strengthened 0.12 per cent versus the greenback at 108.65 per dollar.

The price of benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes rose 7/32 to push yields down to 1.8101 per cent.

U.S. gold futures settled up 0.2 per cent at $1,471.90 an ounce.

Concerns about plentiful crude supplies in 2020 weighed on the oil market, which expects the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to extend production cuts in early December to help avoid a new global glut.

Brent crude futures fell 86 cents to settle at $62.44 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slid 67 cents to settle down at $57.05 a barrel.

Reuters

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