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TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index closed the month on a slightly positive note Friday even though the energy sector was hit by a 22 per cent drop in crude oil prices in November, the worst month in more than a decade. Despite weaker Canadian growth in third-quarter economic activity and consumer spending, and a focus on U.S. President Donald Trump’s weekend meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, oil again took centre stage. The January crude contract lost 52 cents to US$50.93 per barrel, down from $65.31 at the start of the month. It has fallen by more than 30 per cent from $73.25 at the start of October. "It’s quite a big drop," says Kevin Headland, senior investment Strategist at Manulife Investments. "Expectations were that when it hit $75 that it was going to continue to climb and I think that was probably an overestimation of the actual conditions of supply-demand fundamentals." While November’s price decrease was steep, it was affected by the timing of oversupply conditions amid unexpected waivers on Iranian sanctions and a slowdown in global economic growth, he said. Uncertainty remains heading into next week’s OPEC meeting when some expect Saudi Arabia to increase production to […]
