It was a mixed bag of trading on Bay Street as Canada’s stock exchange managed to hover just above the flat line.
The TSX gained a point in late day trading, with a rise in the financials and tech sectors offset by drops in the exchange’s heavily traded marijuana stocks and aerospace giant Bombardier.
Bombardier was the most actively traded company on the index and fell 6.6 percent.
The health care sector back-stepped three percent, led lower by Aurora Cannabis, Aphria, and Canopy Growth which lost between six and 8.7 percent.
The energy sector dropped a quarter of a percent despite a rise in oil.
The price of oil jumped $1.19 to $51.61 US a barrel, pushed higher by a broad-based rally in U.S. stocks on Cyber Monday, as well as a smaller-than-expected rise in key U.S. crude stockpiles, according to Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, General Motors announced plans to halt production at five of its automotive plants, including in Oshawa, Ont.
The automaker also said that it is cutting its salaried contract staff by 15 percent, including a quarter of its salaried executives.
In a release, GM said it is “transforming its global workforce to ensure it has the right skill sets for today and the future, while driving efficiencies through the utilization of best-in-class tools.”
Later in the release, GM said the layoffs are expected to account in $3 billion to $3.8 billion in savings, including up to $1.8 billion of non-cash accelerated asset write-downs and pension charges, and up to $2 billion of employee-related and other cash-based expenses.
GM’s stock rose 4.7 percent today.
In New York, the Dow climbed 354 points, led by a strong push from the index’s financials sector.
Bellwethers Caterpillar, Nike, and Microsoft were all solidly in the green.
The Nasdaq also moved 142 points higher with Amazon, Facebook, and Tesla rising between 3.5 and 6.1 percent.
Amazon’s stock surged 5.2 percent on America’s biggest online shopping day of the year.
Gold and the Canadian dollar dipped slightly as the greenback strengthened. The loonie edged 14/100ths of a cent lower to $0.7541 US while gold dropped $1.00 to $1,222 an ounce.
