Stocks in Canada’s largest centre rose on Tuesday as energy stocks, buoyed by oil prices near five-month highs, led the index to its highest since August 9.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index grew 41.76 points to begin Tuesday’s session at 15,278.43
The Canadian dollar was unchanged at 81.44 cents U.S.
Air Canada raised the higher end of a key profit metric and set new loyalty program targets for 2018 to 2020.
Shares in the Maple Leaf airline gained 48 cents, or 2%, to $24.13.
Credit Suisse cut the target price on Africa Oil Corp. to $2.00 from $2.80. Africa shares dipped three cents, or 1.7%, to $1.70.
BMO raises price target on Semafo to $6.00 from $5.50. Semafo shares gained seven cents, or 2.1%, to $3.49.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that manufacturing sales decreased 2.6% to $52.5 billion in July, following a 1.9% decline in June.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eked up 0.62 points to start out at 777.40
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were positive to begin the session, with energy progressing 0.6%, while health-care and gold climbed 0.5% each.
The two laggards were consumer discretionary and consumer staples, each down 0.1%. Information technology stocks were unchanged in the first hour.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities opened higher on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve kicked off a two-day monetary policy meeting.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 15.43 points on top of Monday’s all-time high to 22,346.78. McDonald's and Apple contributed the most to the gains.
The S&P 500 collected 0.8 points above Monday’s all-time record to 2,504.67, with information technology leading advancers.
The NASDAQ dipped 0.31 points from Monday’s all-time peak to 6,454.33
The Fed is not expected to raise rates following its meeting. However, many market participants believe the central bank will announce the unwinding of its massive $4.5-trillion portfolio.
The U.S. central bank has already raised interest rates twice this year and it expects to hike once more before year-end. Market expectations for a December rate hike rose to 58.3% on Tuesday on strong imports data.
U.S. import prices posted their biggest gain in seven months in August amid a spike in petroleum costs.
Wall Street also looked to the United Nations, where U.S. President Donald Trump will try to rally members to confront threats like North Korea and Iran. Trump is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly at 10:30 a.m. in New York.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note went nowhere, keeping yields at Monday’s 2.23%.
Oil prices fell three cents a barrel to $49.88
Gold prices hiked $2.70 to $1,313.50 U.S. an ounce
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