Stocks in Canada’s biggest centre made slight gains in early trade on Wednesday, helped by rising gold mining stocks while energy and banking stocks weighed.
The S&P/TSX Composite recovered 26.31 points to begin Wednesday at 14,375.41, after a collapse of nearly 250 points.
The Canadian dollar eased off 0.08 cents to 75.76 cents U.S.
The federal government on Tuesday expressed confidence it could appoint new panel members to assess TransCanada Corp's Energy East pipeline, even though industry observers say it might be hard to find qualified candidates.
TransCanada shares dropped 14 cents to $60.60.
Citigroup raised the target price on Bank of Nova Scotia to $76.00 from $70.00. Scotiabank shares sidled nine cents to $68.55.
Stifel raised the rating on Potash Corp. to buy from hold. Potash shares were unchanged at $21.27.
CIBC raised the target price on Teck Resources to $28.00 from $23.00. Teck shares galloped 73 cents, or 3.4%, to $22.00.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange improved 3.33 points to 800.5
All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups were in positive country in the first hour of trading, as gold shone 2.1% brighter, materials were 1.8% stronger, and consumer staples gained 0.6%.
The two laggards were energy, down 0.7%, and financials, off 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Equities south of the border traded slightly higher on Wednesday, following a more than 1% selloff on Tuesday, as investors closely watched oil prices.
The Dow Jones Industrials regained 50.75 points, to 18,117.50, following a dive Tuesday of nearly 260 points, with Apple contributing the most gains.
The S&P 500 rebounded 7.97 points to 2,134.99, with utilities leading
The NASDAQ Composite recouped 31.57 points to 5,186.83, as Apple traveled 1.8% higher.
Data released Wednesday included import prices for August, which fell 0.2%. Economists had forecast import prices slipping 0.1% in August. In the 12 months through August, import prices fell 2.2%, the smallest decrease since October 2014, after declining 3.7% in July.
Import prices have been reined in by a strong dollar and cheap oil. That, together with sluggish wage growth, have left inflation persistently running below the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained, lowering yields to 1.69% from Tuesday’s 1.72%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions
Oil prices dropped 53 cents at $44.37 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices progressed $1.80 at $1,325.50 U.S. an ounce.
