Equities in Canada’s largest financial centre edged higher on Monday as gold and telecom stocks gained ground, offsetting losses for energy stocks as oil fell.
The S&P/TSX Composite gained 30.22 points to begin Monday at 14,670.10
The Canadian dollar faded 0.16 cents at 76.73 cents U.S.
A report in Barron’s Sunday said Goldcorp’s stock could rise 40% even without support from rising precious-metals prices, as the miner's cost-cutting efforts begin to show.
For the time being, Goldcorp shares soared 22 cents, or 1.1%, to $20.97.
JP Morgan raised the target price on Blackberry to $8.00 from $7.00 with a neutral rating. The company formerly known as Research in Motion tacked on four cents to $10.42.
CIBC raised the rating on Cascades to outperform from underperform; target price to $12.00 from $8.00.
Cascades leapfrogged 56 cents, or 5.7%, to $10.36.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 0.9 points to 806.43
Eight of the 12 subgroups were positive in the day’s first hour, as materials gained 0.8%, gold shone brighter 0.7%, and telecoms sprang up 0.4%.
The four laggards were weighed most by health-care, off 0.7%, energy, sagging 0.2%, and information technology, down 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities rose on Monday as investors mulled over economic data while looking for clues about the Federal Reserve's next move.
The Dow Jones Industrials recouped 92.11 points to 18,487.51, after a sizable drop on Friday, with Cisco Systems leading advancers and Nike the greatest laggard.
The S&P 500 regained 9.06 points to 2,178.10, with financials and utilities leading nine sectors higher.
The NASDAQ Composite gained 12.03 points to 5,230.94.
In corporate news, Mylan said it would launch an EpiPen generic at a 50% discount to the branded product's list price. The pharmaceutical firm has been under amid the rapid price increases for the EpiPen.
Meanwhile, activist investor Carl Icahn said late Friday he bought 2.3 million shares of Herbalife after Bill Ackman said he was approached indirectly by Icahn to buy the billionaire's stake in Herbalife.
In the economic basket, consumer spending in the U.S. rose 0.3% in July, in line with expectations. The personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed's preferred inflation indicator, rose 0.1% last month and is up 1.6% over the 12 months through July.
There are no more economic data due Monday, but investors are already looking ahead to the August jobs report, due Friday, as the odds of a rate hike next month have recently increased.
Market expectations for a Fed rate hike in September were at 30% Monday, after hovering close to 18% for most of last week
Prices for the 10-year Treasury strengthened, lowering yields to 1.59% from Friday’s 1.62%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell 65 cents at $46.99 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices dropped $1.40 at $1,324.50 U.S. an ounce.
