The U.S. President’s recent tariff threats weren’t enough to pull down the TSX today.
Trump is pushing to proceed with $200 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese products, despite efforts to rekindle trade talks between the two global economic superpowers.
Trade uncertainty, coupled with talks on re-modelling NAFTA stalling tempered gains in the key tech, financials and industrials sectors, as the TSX moved 11 points higher.
Meanwhile, a rally among many of the volatile marijuana stocks also helped Canada’s stock exchange stay above water.
A trio of cannabis producers, which are the perennial front-runners among the most actively traded stocks on the index, rallied from yesterday’s  losses with Aurora, Aphria, Canopy Growth, Hydropothecary and Cronos returning to positive territory.
Cannabis rallied despite a report that U.S. border guards could bar Canadians for life from entering America, if they admit at the border that they have smoked pot, or have invested in marijuana stocks.
On Wall Street, U.S./China tariff fears was a culprit in erasing yesterday’s triple digit gains on the Dow, which managed to inch up eight points.
The Nasdaq didn’t escape the red, slipping three points.
The loonie lost ground against a strengthening American dollar, losing 20/100ths of a cent to $0.7672 US, but was still on course for its best weekly performance in five months.
Oil clawed back from yesterday’s losses, edging 34 cents higher to $68.93 with November’s deadline on U.S. sanctions on Iran raising concerns over supply, while gold spiralled, dropping $8.60 to $1,194 an ounce.
