TORONTO -- Canada's main stock index closed lower Wednesday while the loonie slid, as Wall Street remained steady after the White House unveiled a tax reform plan.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index gave back 95.65 points to 15,649.54, with the financials sector down 1.26 per cent.
The Canadian dollar lost 0.26 of a U.S. cent to 73.46 cents US.
In New York, markets closed slightly lower amid the release of a one-page outline of U.S. President Donald Trump's tax reform plan.
The Dow Jones industrial average retreated 21.03 points to 20,975.09, the S&P 500 index lost 1.16 points to 2,387.45, and the Nasdaq composite index was down 0.26 of a point to 6,025.23.
"There's been a lot of news but not a lot of market action," said Colin Cieszynski, chief market analyst at CMC Markets Canada, citing the tax reform package and Trump's threats to walk away from NAFTA as examples.
"There's a lot of noise but not a lot of things happening, so the markets are just kind of holding steady here."
Shares of Home Capital Group Inc. (TSX:HCG) were down nearly 65 per cent, or $11.10, to $5.99 as the mortgage lender signed a deal for a $2 billion credit line.
Home Capital's stock has faced pressure recently after staff at Ontario's securities regulator alleged that the company, two former CEOs and the current CFO broke the law in their handling of a scandal involving falsified loan applications.
In commodities, the June crude contract added six cents at US$49.62 per barrel and the June natural gas contract advanced 10.6 cents at US$3.27 per mmBTU.
The June gold contract gave back $3.00 at US$1,264.20 an ounce.
