Equities in Canada’s biggest centre continued their win streak Wednesday, as health-care and industrials led the charge.
The S&P/TSX Composite gained 8.96 points to wind up Wednesday at 14,533.57
The Canadian dollar slumped 0.24 cents to 76.56 cents U.S.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals skyrocketed $1.42, or 4.6%, to $32.10, while Concordia Healthcare gained 54 cents, or 2%, to $27.24.
Among industrials, Canadian National Railway climbed $1.58, or 1.9%, to $83.13, while rival Canadian Pacific Railway gained $10.26, or 5.5%, to $196.26.
Among tech stocks, BlackBerry jumped 14 cents, or 1.6%, to $8.82.
Gold slumped sharply, as Barrick Gold dropped $2.09, or 7.4%, to $26.00, while Kinross Gold fell 51 cents, or 7.3%, to $6.45.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 13.86 points to 754.76
Nine of the 13 subgroups were higher, with health-care and industrials each ahead 2%, and information technology better by 1.6%.
The four laggards were gold, off 6.1%, materials, slumping 4.1%, and utilities, easing back 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
The NASDAQ Composite led U.S. stocks to a higher close Wednesday as better-than-expected earnings boosted optimism on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 36.02 points to 18,595.03, a record high for the seventh day in a row, with nine consecutive days of gains for the first time since 2013, led by Microsoft, which beat on earnings and revenue as its cloud product Azure saw revenue growth of 102%.
The S&P 500 gained 9.24 points to 2,173.02, as technology and health -are led six sectors in the green. Defensive sectors like consumer staples and utilities were the biggest laggards on the S&P Wednesday.
The NASDAQ rumbled forward 53.56 points, or 1.1%, to 5,089.93, helped by a 2% gain in biotech.
Bank results continued to surprise Wednesday, with Morgan Stanley reporting earnings of 75 cents U.S. per share versus consensus expectations of 59 cents, according to Thomson Reuters.
Morgan Stanley joined Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America on the list of U.S. financial institutions topping second-quarter profit forecasts.
In all, 64% of S&P 500 companies that had reported as of Tuesday morning topped earnings estimates, according to Thomson Reuters, compared to a long-term average of 63% over the past 22 years.
Abbott Labs, American Express, eBay, Intel, Qualcomm, Mattel and United Continental also report Wednesday.
In deal news, Monsanto said Bayer's $64-billion U.S. bid was inadequate, amid speculation the U.S. seed giant will hold out for a $130-per-share offer.
Celgene was up 2%, and Gilead up 1.5%. Progenics rose more than 23% and Valeant is up more than 4% on positive drug licensing news.
U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 2.3 million barrels for the ninth consecutive decline in stockpiles, according to weekly Energy Information Administration data released Wednesday.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury faded, growing yields to 1.58% from Tuesday’s 1.56%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices jumped 29 cents a barrel to $44.85 U.S.
Gold prices lost $18.40 to $1,313.90 U.S. an ounce.
