(Updates with morning prices)

By Sanchayaita Roy

June 4 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index struggled

for direction on Wednesday, as investors remained cautious on

U.S. tariff negotiations with trading partners and assessed the

Bank of Canada's decision to maintain the interest rate.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index

was flat at 26,426.98 points. The index notched a

record peak in the previous two sessions.

The U.S. doubled tariffs on imported steel and aluminum on

Wednesday, the same day as the deadline for Washington's trading

partners to make their best offers to avoid hefty "Liberation

Day" tariffs from taking effect in July.

Europe's top trade negotiator said that trade talks between

the European Union and the U.S. are going in the right

direction.

Also on Wednesday, Trump called China's Xi Jinping

"extremely hard to make a deal with", pointing to frictions

after the White House raised expectations for a long-awaited

phone call between the two leaders this week.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada held its key benchmark rate at

2.75%, citing the need to assess the effects of U.S. trade

policy, but indicated another cut might be necessary if tariffs

weaken the economy.

"The market has become a little insensitive to all the trade

headlines until we have something more concrete", said Angelo

Kourkafas, senior global investment strategist at Edward Jones.

"The market is choosing to focus again on the fundamental

factors...there's been a lot of reversals in these news

headlines, while at the same time economic data have continued

to come in pretty strong, which has allowed the markets to look

a little bit past those headlines."

Data showed Canada's services economy downturn eased in May,

as firms grew more hopeful that trade and political uncertainty

would become less of a drag on activity over the coming 12

months.

Canadian labor productivity rose by 0.2% in the first

quarter.

On TSX, metal miners' shares gained 0.7% tracking

higher gold prices, while the healthcare subindex

gained 0.6%.