Canada's main stock index rose on Monday – though off its highs of the morning -- led by a rally in energy shares, after a trade truce between the United States and China.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index handed back much of its gains by noon Monday, remaining only 11.71 points ahead to 15,209.53.
The Canadian dollar regained 0.43 cents at 75.86 U.S.
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Cenovus Energy Inc, which jumped 88 cents, or 9%, to $10.70, and Tamarack Valley Energy, which surged 13 cents, or 5.9%, to $2.32
Cannabis producer Aphria plunged $2.14, or 20.4%,, the most on the TSX, to $8.37, followed by Gibson Energy, down $1.38, or 6.5%, to $19.97.
The Bank of Canada will raise interest rates early next year, according to a strong majority of economists, who still say two more rate rises will follow by end-2019.
Elsewhere on the economic docket, the headline seasonally-adjusted IHS Markit Canada Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index registered 54.9 in November, up from 53.9 in October, to signal the sharpest improvement in business conditions since August.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 5.12 points by midday Monday at 584.4
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were negative by noon, as health-care tumbled 3.5%, real-estate lost 0.8%, and consumer staples slid 0.6%.
The four gainers were energy, up 2.8%, materials, surging 0.7%, and gold, better by 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Markets rose sharply Monday, after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day ceasefire in the trade war that has weighed heavily on global stock markets for most of 2018.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average came off its highs of the morning, but remained afloat 156.5 points to reach noon at 25,695.06,
The S&P 500 acquired 16.05 points to 2,776.22. The NASDAQ gained 69.58 points to 7,400.12
The consumer discretionary sector in the S&P 500 was the best performer, rising more than 2%. Amazon took on 4.6%, and Apple jumped 1.9%.
Shares of General Motors, Ford and Tesla all jumped more than 1% after President Trump tweeted that China agreed to cut tariffs on U.S. cars sold into China.
Caterpillar rose 2.4% and Boeing jumped 2.9%. Chip stocks which have operations in China and a large amount of their sales in the country climbed with Micron and Nvidia each adding more than 2%.
Steel stocks also jumped, as shares of U.S. Steel and AK Steel traded more than 1.5% higher apiece.
The two leaders, who met for dinner on Saturday at the G-20 summit in Argentina, agreed to hold off on additional tariffs on each other's goods at the start of the New Year to allow for talks to continue. The U.S. agreed to leave tariffs on more than $200 billion worth of Chinese products at 10%.
If after 90 days the two countries are unable to reach an agreement, that rate will be raised to 25%, according to the White House. Trade negotiations will address forced technology transfer and intellectual property.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury regained their lost strength, lowering yields back to Friday’s 3%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices leaped $1.27 to $52.20 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices tacked on $13.30 to $1,239.30 U.S. an ounce.
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