Equities in Canada’s largest centre opened higher on Thursday, as a rebound in oil prices boosted energy stocks and Suncor Energy, the country's largest oil and gas producer, jumped after a surprisingly strong profit.
The S&P/TSX Composite added 53.43 points to open for business Thursday at 14,860.99
The Canadian dollar poked up 0.02 cents to 74.76 cents U.S.
Suncor reported a better than-expected third-quarter profit on Wednesday thanks to strong upstream production, lower operating costs and record crude throughput at its refineries. The company reported net earnings of $392 million, or 24 cents per share.
Suncor soared $2.10, or 5.1%, to $41.39.
Barrick Gold reported a bigger quarterly profit on Wednesday, reflecting higher gold prices and lower costs, while cutting its 2016 production costs and lifting its output.
Barrick shares were lifted 52 cents, or 2.3%, to $22.76.
Goldcorp reported a quarterly profit that met market expectations but its production fell due to continued lower gold grades, throughput and recoveries at its flagship Penasquito mine in Mexico.
Goldcorp shares faded 45 cents, or 2.2%, to $20.05
Husky Energy reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss as weak crude oil prices continued to eat into profits. Husky recorded nearly $1.5 billion in gains related to asset sales, helping the company post a quarterly profit of $1.39 billion, compared with a year-ago loss of $4.09 billion.
Husky shares docked 27 cents, or 1.8%, to $14.99.
MEG Energy reported a net loss of $109 million, compared with a loss of $428 million, or $1.90 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 8% to $497 million.
MEG eked out a gain of three cents to $5.76.
Potash Corp of Saskatchewan reported a 25.7% drop in quarterly sales, as potash prices remained weak. The company also cut the upper end of its full-year earnings forecast to 40 cents-45 cents per share from 40 cents-55 cents per share.
Potash shares were unchanged at $22.45.
Teck Resources reported net profit attributable to shareholders was $234 million, or 40 cents per share, for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $2.15 billion, or $3.73 per share, a year earlier. The revenue rose 9.7% to $2.31 billion.
Teck dropped a dollar, or 3.6%, to $27.14.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $960 in August, up 0.8% from the previous month. Compared with 12 months earlier, weekly earnings increased 1.6%, partly as a result of relatively low earnings in August 2015.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 4.32 points to begin Thursday at 779.71
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly split between gainers and losers in the first hour, with energy soaring 1.8%, while information technology took on 0.8%, and industrials picked up 0.6%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by real-estate, sinking 0.7%, gold, down 0.5%, and health-care, doffing 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities lost ground on Thursday as investors pondered a fresh batch of corporate earnings results and economic data, while sovereign bonds around the world fell.
The Dow Jones Industrials dipped 35.44 points to 18,163.89, with Boeing contributing the most losses
The S&P 500 sagged 5.17 at 2,134.29, with telecommunications leading advancers and real estate falling more than 1.5% to lead decliners.
The NASDAQ composite index dropped 10.35 points to 5,239.92,
On the earnings front, Colgate-Palmolive, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Ford and UPS are just a few of the companies that posted quarterly results before the bell. Alphabet, Amazon.com, LinkedIn and Baidu are among companies set to report after the bell.
Corporate earnings have done well relative to expectations. According to data from The Earnings Scout, 50% of S&P 500 components had posted results as of Thursday morning, with 73% beating earnings estimates and 61% topping sales expectations.
In economic news, initial jobless claims fell 3,000 to 258,000, while durable goods for September unexpectedly fell. Pending home sales, meanwhile, rose 1.5% in September.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury slumped, hoisting yields to 1.86% from Wednesday’s 1.8%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices hiked 33 cents to $49.51 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices poked up a dollar to $1,267.60 U.S. an ounce.
