Equities in Canada’s biggest market opened higher on Friday, gunning for their sixth straight day of gains, as investors embraced more risks after minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's September meeting showed it was in no hurry to hike interest rates.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 57.09 points to open Friday at 14,035.75
The Canadian dollar advanced 0.24 cents at 77.07 cents U.S.
Equity markets in Canada are shuttered Monday for Thanksgiving
The investment arm of Israeli gas firm Delek Group has acquired a near 20% stake in Ithaca Energy for $66 million. The deal underlines investors still see value in North Sea related businesses, despite a slump in oil prices and high operating costs in one of the world's most mature oil and gas basins.
Ithaca shares took on 11 cents, or 12.5%, to 99 cents.
RBC raised the price target on Rogers Communications Inc. to $47.00 from $46.00, expressing the opinion that the period of underperformance for the company has ended and expect a continued narrowing of its discount to large-cap peers.
Rogers shares gained 61 cents, or 1.3%, to $48.08.
Morgan Stanley raised the target price on Sun Life Financial to $46.00 from $45.00, says Canadian insurers should also benefit from widening corporate bond spreads.
Sun Life shares docked 11 cents to $44.55.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that the economy created only 12,000 jobs in September, as the unemployment rate was boosted 0.1 percentage points to 7.1%., with more people taking part in the labour market.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 3.46 points to 550.5.
All but two of the 13 TSX subgroups were positive to begin Friday’s session, with metals and mining bolting 8.1%, gold 2.6%, and materials 2.3%
The two laggards were consumer staples, down 0.4%, and real-estate, off 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded in a range Friday as investors awaited quarterly earnings and continued to digest the implications of the Fed meeting minutes on the timing of a rate hike.
The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 1.27 points to 17,049.48, with United Technologies leading advancers and Intel the greatest laggard.
The S&P 500 gathered 4.24 points to 2,017.67, with materials leading seven sectors higher and energy the greatest decliner.
The NASDAQ index gained 11.74 points to 4,822.53, as Apple held more than half a percentage point higher
Traders also awaited the beginning of earnings season, which gets underway with JPMorgan results next Tuesday. Alcoa reported earnings after the close Thursday that missed on both the top and bottom line.
New York Fed President William Dudley is due to speak today at 11:00 a.m. ET. Separately, the Chicago Fed's Charles Evans is also scheduled to speak.
On the data front, import prices fell 0.1% in September, less than the expected 0.5% drop. However, export prices fell 0.7%, more than the 0.2% forecast by economists.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries were up slightly, lowering yields to 2.10% from Thursday’s 2.11%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 39 cents a barrel to $50.02 U.S.
Gold prices rallied $15.37 to $1,154.38 U.S. an ounce.
