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Canadian dollar weakens, benchmark yield slips

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TSX up 0.2%

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Bitfarms ( BITF ) fires outgoing CEO with immediate effect, shares

fall

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Premium Brands Holdings ( PRBZF ) rises on Q1 results beat

(Updated at 10:20 a.m. ET (14:20 GMT)

By Khushi Singh

May 13 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index moved

higher on Monday, led by gains in consumer staples stocks, while

investors await key economic data scheduled for later in the

week to assess this year's interest rate cut trajectory.

At 10:20 a.m. ET (14:20 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's

S&P/TSX composite index was up 37.31 points, or 0.17%,

at 22,346.24.

The Canadian dollar weakened against the greenback on

Monday, while the yield on benchmark government debt

also slipped, tracking its U.S. peer.

The index saw broader gains, with nine out of eleven sectors

trading in the green.

The consumer staples index led sectoral gains

adding 1.0%, supported by a 6.2% jump in the shares of Premium

Brands Holdings ( PRBZF ) as the specialty food producer,

marketer and distributor beat first quarter results.

The materials index led sectoral declines,

slipping 0.4%, being weighed down by a decline in gold prices

ahead of key U.S. inflation data due on Wednesday, which could

offer cues to the timing of the Federal Reserve's first rate

cut.

"Probably some profit-taking ahead of the important CPI data

this week is weighing on gold prices today. To see a further

uptick in gold prices, there needs to be a clear slowdown in

inflation readings," UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.

Through the week, investors will also keep an eye out for

April retail sales and weekly jobless claims data from the U.S.,

along with Canada's wholesale trade and manufacturing sales

figures for March.

On the corporate front, Bitfarms ( BITF ) shares fell 8% as

the bitcoin mining company announced that it had fired its

outgoing chief executive Geoffrey Morphy with immediate effect.

Nicolas Bonta has been appointed on an interim basis.

The broader information technology index was off

0.2%.