Canadian Stocks Up Slightly, Led By Energy Gains -- Canadian Commentary

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market nudged slightly higher in the final moments of Tuesday's session, helped by gains in the energy sector.

Stocks were steady after the market snapped a 7-session winning streak in the previous session. Still, today's performance was lackluster after a disappointing U.S. retail sales report and some mixed U.S. corporate earnings reports.

Morgan, Wells Fargo and Johnson & Johnson all posted better than expected quarterly results, but J&J lowered its full-year guidance. Norfolk Southern and Zillow also warned of weaker than expected results.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 5.59 points or 0.04 percent to 15,389.28

The Capped Health Care Index was down 1.1 percent, while weakness also emerged among consumer stocks.

CRH Medical (CRH.TO) shares tumbled 7.9 percent.

Energy stocks performed well, as crude oil prices edged higher amid signs that U.S. shale producers are scaling back production.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects U.S. shale production to fall by 45,000 barrels to 4.98 million barrels per day in May from April.

The Energy Index was up 1.9 percent, led by Penn West Petroleum, up 9.3 percent.

Gold stocks were slightly weaker, but other miners saw decent gains. The Diversified Metal and Mining Index was up 1.24 percent. Corvus Gold (KOR.TO) lost 8 percent.

On the economic front, U.S. retail sales rebounded in March following three straight monthly declines, the increase fell short of economist estimates. The report said retail sales climbed by 0.9 percent in March following a revised 0.5 percent decrease in February.

However, economists had been expecting sales to surge up by 1.1 percent compared to the 0.6 percent drop originally reported for the previous month.

With a jump in energy prices offsetting a continued drop in food prices, the Labor Department released a report on Tuesday showing that U.S. producer prices rose for the first time in five months in March.

The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand rose by 0.2 percent in March after falling by 0.5 percent in February. The increase by the index, the first since last October, matched economist estimates.

Eurozone industrial production grew the most in seven months in February and exceeded economists' expectations, figures from Eurostat showed Tuesday. Industrial production rose a working-day adjusted 1.6 percent year-on-year following 0.4 percent growth in January, which was revised from 1.2 percent. Economists had expected 0.8 percent growth.