Stocks in Canada’s largest centre managed to hold onto their gains, albeit more moderate than Wednesday’s triple-digit triumph, these ones led by advances in consumer staples and financial issues.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rocketed 60.59 points to greet noon at 15,584.04
The Canadian dollar backpedaled 0.16 cents to 75.04 cents U.S.
Consumer staples such as Maple Leaf Foods gained 41 cents, or 1.3%, to $31.61, and Loblaw picked up 46 cents to $71.82.
Financial issues moved up as well, as Royal Bank strengthened $1.14, or 1.2%, to $97.80, while Sun Life advanced 79 cents, or 1.6%, to $49.60.
Telecoms made headway, as BCE added 18 cents to $57.75, and Rogers Communications ballooned 88 cents, or 1.6%, to $56.65.
Gold stocks, however, moved the other way, as IAMGOLD docked 10 cents, or 1.9%, to $5.06, and Barrick Gold fell a dime to $25.23
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reported that offshore investors increased their holdings in Canadian investment to $6.2 billion in January from $10.2 billion in December, while domestic investors hiked their holdings of foreign securities by $8.6 billion, led by purchases of U.S. instruments.
As a result, the agency says, international transactions in securities generated a net outflow of funds of $2.4 billion from the Canadian economy in the month, the first outflow since December 2015.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange moved higher 4.3 points to 811.58
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were positive midday, as consumer staples climbed 0.8%, financials gained 0.7%, and telecoms picked up 0.6%.
Gold slipped 0.9%, information technology doffed 0.1%. Utilities were unchanged by noon hour.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks erased opening gains to trade slightly lower Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrials subtracted 34.7 points to reach noon hour at 20,915.40. IBM contributed the most to gains, while Chevron and Johnson & Johnson had the greatest negative impact.
The S&P 500 moved backward 5.04 points to 2,380.22. Health care stocks lagged, falling 1% as the worst performing sector in the S&P 500 in late-morning trade. Shares of Biogen led declines, dropping more than 5% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to equal-weight.
The NASDAQ lost 3.64 points to 5,896.40
Analysts also attributed the overall health care stock declines to President Donald Trump's budget blueprint, released Thursday, that proposed cutting the National Institutes of Health's spending by $5.8 billion U.S.
Weekly initial jobless claims fell to 241,000. Housing starts rose in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.288 million, more than expected. The Philly Fed Index also topped forecasts at 32.8 for March.
The Fed raised interest rates as expected and continued to signal two additional hikes this year. Policymakers said inflation should now "stabilize" around 2% and they would continue to monitor developments relative to the Fed's "symmetric" inflation goal. Markets had generally expected indication of more aggressive tightening.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note faded, raising yields to 2.52% from Wednesday’s 2.5%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped 15 cents to $48.71 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices leaped $27.10 to $1,227.80 U.S. an ounce.
