Stocks in Canada’s largest centre slowly made their way into positive readings on Tuesday as gains in its energy sector largely offset weakness in a range of other areas including telecoms, utilities and industrial names.
The S&P/TSX composite index regained 31.13 points to greet noon at 13,413.51
The Canadian dollar regained 0.25 cents at 75.06 cents U.S.
Encana advanced 4.6% to $11.16, Canadian Natural Resources added 0.8% to $33.27, and Suncor Energy Inc rose 0.7% to $36.91.
On the other side of the scale sat BCE Inc, which declined 2.5% to $56.58 after raising $750 million in a rare bought-deal share sale, plus a string of large banks and the two main railway stocks.
Bombardier Inc declined 1.6% to $1.22 after it warned that a previously announced business jet production cut will drive down revenue in 2016.
The industrials group retreated, with Canadian National Railway down 1.4% at $77.99.
Convenience store chain operator Alimentation Couche-Tard rose 1.5% to $62.21 after its earnings report.
First Quantum Minerals was up 6.4% to $4.83. Copper prices advanced 1.7% to $4,566.50 U.S. a tonne.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange inched back 2.07 points to 519.09.
Of the 13 TSX subgroups, seven were higher, as energy bolted 2.1%, gold was better 2%, and materials picked up 1.8%
Of the half-dozen laggards, utilities sank 1.6%, industrials trailed off 0.9%, and information technology hesitated 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks in New York struggled their way into the green Tuesday, attempting to shake off most of an earlier decline following news of a downed Russian warplane near the Syrian border.
The Dow Jones industrial average inched up 1.54 points from negative territory to pause for lunch at 17,794.22, boosted by gains in Chevron and Exxon Mobil.
The S&P 500 remained negative 3.79 points to 2,082.80. Energy rose more than 2% as the top advancer in the much broader index.
The NASDAQ index gave back 20.54 points to 5,081.93, as Facebook, Amazon and Alphabet fell nearly 2% or more. Apple traded more than 0.5% higher in late-morning trade.
Campbell Soup, Dollar Tree, Hormel Food, and Tiffany reported ahead of the bell. Hewlett Packard does so after the bell, as do Guess and TiVo.
A Russian warplane was shot down near the Syrian border Tuesday after it reportedly entered Turkish airspace. State-run Turkish news service Anadolu Agency said that the downed warplane was a Russian-made SU-24 and had been engaged by two Turkish F16 jets
In economic news, revised third-quarter U.S. Gross Domestic Product came in as expected, up 2.1% from the original reading of 1.5%.
Consumer confidence came in at 90.4 for November. The figure was expected to rise to 99.5 from 97.6.
Moreover, the S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan U.S. areas gained 5.5% in September on a year-over-year basis compared with 5.1% in the year to August. It was above the 5.1% estimate from a poll of economists.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries eked out a gain, lowering yields to 2.24% from Monday’s 2.25%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices stayed positive $1.01 a barrel to $42.76 U.S.
Gold prices perked $6.88 to $1,076.06 U.S. an ounce.
