Stocks in Toronto rose to a fresh nine-month high on Thursday as resource stocks rallied after oil breached $50.00 a barrel, while financials also advanced as investors digested quarterly earnings from some of the country's major banks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index climbed 30.69 points to open Thursday at 14,084.43.
The Canadian dollar advanced 0.42 cents to 77.22 cents U.S.
Royal Bank of Canada said bad loans increased by $583 million, or 19%, in the second quarter from the quarter before, largely due to a rise in credit to oil firms that had turned sour.
Shares in Canada’s largest bank gained 70 cents to $79.95.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reported a 3.5% rise in quarterly profit, helped by growth in its retail and business banking division.
Commerce shares declined $1.12, or 1.1%, to $102.24.
Barclays raised the target price on Bank of Montreal to $70.00 from $65.00.
BMO shares ducked back 78 cents to $83.49.
Canaccord Genuity raised the rating on Kinross Gold to buy from hold. Kinross shares galloped 16 cents, or 2.8%, to $5.90.
NBF resumes coverage on Prometic Life Sciences with an outperform rating, and price target of $4.90.
Prometric shares picked up a penny to $3.02.
Economically speaking, Statistics Canada reported this morning that average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $960 in March, up 0.5% from the previous month. Compared with the same month the year before, average weekly earnings increased 0.7%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange hiked 7.14 points to 684.22.
All but three of the 13 TSX subgroups gained ground, most notably, metals and mining, up 2.7%, energy, ahead 0.7%, and materials, up 0.6%.
The three laggards were health-care, down 0.6%, while information technology and consumer discretionary issues each erased 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded in a narrow range Thursday, struggling for a third-straight day of gains, with oil trying to hold the psychologically key $50.00 level after earlier topping it for the first time since October.
The Dow Jones Industrials eked up 0.48 points to begin Thursday at 17,851.03, with and Apple trading about 0.5% lower. The iPhone maker's stock and Goldman Sachs had the greatest negative impact on the Dow in morning trade.
The S&P 500 slid 1.74 points to 2,088.80, with consumer staples leading seven sectors higher and financials the greatest laggard.
The NASDAQ Composite gained 3.82 points to 4,898.72
Durable goods orders jumped 3.4% last month, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. However, non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, fell 0.8% for a third-straight month after an upwardly revised 0.1% drop the prior month.
Initial jobless claims fell to a seasonally-adjusted 268,000 for the week ended May 21.
Pending home sales rose 5.1% in April from the previous month to hit their highest level in a decade.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained slightly, lowering yields to 1.85% from Wednesday’s 1.87%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 12 cents a barrel to $49.68 U.S.
Gold prices were up $1.18 to $1,225.59 U.S. an ounce.
