TORONTO -- The Toronto stock market was relatively flat Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve hinted that it still won't likely move on interest rates any time soon.
The S&P/TSX composite index was ahead 2.08 points to 14,975. The Canadian dollar fell 0.37 of a cent to 88.13 cents US.
The latest minutes by the Fed showed officials debated whether or not to keep its wording on the timing of any interest rate hikes out of concern that a change could be misinterpreted by financial markets.
Minutes of the Fed's Oct. 28-29 meeting showed Fed officials renewed a debate from their September meeting about whether they should alter language they have used since the spring that they expected to keep a key short-term interest rate low for a "considerable time" after halting monthly bond purchases. They decided the economy had improved enough to halt the bond purchases but in the end, kept in the phrase.
Rates have been near zero since the 2008 financial crisis. It's generally expected that a hike won't come until mid-2015.
New York's Dow industrials dropped 37.64 points to 17,650.18, the Nasdaq fell 29.76 points to 4,672.68 and the S&P 500 index declined 7.03 points to 2,044.77.
The Toronto market was held back by the resource sectors with the energy component down 0.5 per cent while crude continued to be stuck around the US$75 a barrel level.
The December oil contract in New York dipped 14 cents to $74.50 a barrel.
Prices were little changed even after the release of data showing that U.S. inventories rose by 2.6 million barrels this week against the 1.5 million barrel drop that analysts had expected.
"I think the oil price has overshot to the downside," said Paul Vaillancourt, executive vice-president, private wealth at Fiera Capital in Calgary.
"I'm not sure we're going to revisit the $100 a barrel level. That wasn't warranted where we were in the economic recovery. But 75 bucks is not accurate either. It's not a proper reflection. I think it should be bouncing back towards the $80 level."
The base metals group of stocks was down 1.34 per cent while the December copper contract closed four cents higher to US$3.05.
The gold sector gave back about half of a five per cent jump Tuesday as the December gold bullion contract lost $3.20 to US$1,193.90 an ounce.
The consumer staples group led advancers, up 1.7 per cent as grocer Metro Inc. (TSX:MRU) had a $115.6-million profit in the fourth quarter of its 2014 financial year, or $1.32 per share, which was above analyst estimates of $1.29 share. Its revenue in the fourth quarter was up 3.9 per cent from a year earlier, rising to $2.7 billion, while Metro's same-store sales were up 3.1 per cent. Its shares gained $6.18 to $88.68.
Shares in pipeline company TransCanada (TSX:TRP) climbed $1.72 to $57.72 after CEO Russ Girling said he expects the company's dividend to grow at an average annual rate of at least eight per cent through 2017. He added that "success in advancing our major projects" could push annual dividend growth rate to 10 per cent or higher.
