Canada's main stock index rose on Friday as the country's two main telecoms firms made headway with their merger deal, but gains were capped on worries over "soft landing" challenges for the economy.
The TSX jumped 112.45 points to pause for noon at 20,104.33.
The Canadian dollar faded 0.11 cents to 78.24 cents U.S.
Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications finalized an agreement to sell Freedom Mobile to Videotron, a unit of Quebecor, in a $2.85-billion deal.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange forged ahead 1.38 points to 674.40.
All 12 TSX subgroups were uniformly positive midday, led by health-care, up 2.2%, gold, up 2.1%, materials, better by 1.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Friday, putting the S&P 500 on track for its fourth positive week in a row on the hope that inflation is peaking.
The Dow Jones Industrials popped 259.44 points, to observe midday Friday at 33,596.11
The S&P 500 jumped 42.99 points, or 1%, to 4,250.19
The NASDAQ Composite recovered 89.05 points to 12,868.96.
The S&P 500 is up 2% on the week and is on track for its longest weekly winning streak since November 2021. The Dow is up 2% for the week, while the NASDAQ Composite is 1.5% higher. For the NASDAQ, it is also the fourth positive week in a row.
Consumer sentiment data are due out later Friday.
Treasury prices were static, keeping yields at Thursday’s 2.87%.
Oil prices wilted $1.97 to $92.37 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices revived $5.90 to $1,813.10 U.S. an ounce.
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