CANADA STOCKS-Canada's TSX falls as Wall Street declines, tariff threats loom

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By Promit Mukherjee and Pranav Kashyap

Feb 20 (Reuters) - Shares on Canada's Toronto Stock Exchange slid on Thursday as Wall Street indexes eased from record highs seen a day before and renewed tariff threat from U.S. President Donald Trump kept investors on edge.

The S&P/TSX Composite index .GSPTSE fell by 0.44% or 113.24 points to 25,513.61, giving away most of the gains earned this week. Technology and industrial stocks led the drop, even as investors digested solid earnings from some firms.

"I think it's really been driven by the Walmart report in the United States," said Jeff Sayer, Portfolio Manager at Ninepoint Partners on the losses seen in TSX.

Wall Street's S&P 500 fell on Thursday after heavyweight retailer Walmart WMT.N warned of waning consumer demand. The decline infected other big U.S. retailers Costco Wholesale COST.O and Target TGT.N.

Walmart and Costco also operate in Canada.

Walmart indicated that consumers were facing an uncertain macroeconomic environment and that pushed many investors, including in Canada, to book profits, Sayer said.

The TSX, which gained 18% last year, has already risen by 3% this year, but the journey has been choppy due to a constant threat of tariffs from the U.S.

Trump late on Wednesday fired a fresh salvo of tariff threats saying that he would impose duties on imports of lumber and forest products over the next month or sooner, a day after announcing tariffs on cars, computer chips and pharmaceuticals.

While investors have been jittery with every new tariff announcement fearing an all-out trade war, Sayer said the market was beginning to discount the threat of future tariffs.

Shares in technology companies on the TSX were the biggest losers of the day with the index .SPTTTK falling almost 2.17%, dragged down by heavyweight Shopify SHOP.TO which fell 3.7% and BlackBerry Ltd BB.TO which was down 5.04%.

Transportation company TFI International TFII.TO lost over a fifth of its market value after it said it would shift headquarters to the U.S. and did not give an earnings forecast. This pulled down the industrial index .GSPTTIN by almost 1%.

Other main movers were Cenovus Energy CVE.TO which lost 2.8% after the oil and gas giant reported a decline in fourth-quarter profits. Nutrien NTR.TO gained 0.9% after the top potash producer reported its fourth-quarter results.

Manulife Financial MFC.TO gained 6.7% after the company saw a 6% increase in quarterly profit and uranium miner Cameco was down 0.4% even as its earnings beat expectations.

Globally, investors continued to rush to the refuge of safe-haven gold on concerns of a trade war and the bullion rose by 0.1% to notch a record high of $2,936.38 an ounce. The pan-European stock index .STOXX fell 0.2% to a one-week low.