Equities in Canada’s largest market kept in the green from wire to wire Thursday, carried largely by gains in health-care items.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell off its highs of the day, but remained positive 41.5 points to finish Thursday at 15,562.41
The Canadian dollar backpedaled 0.21 cents to 74.99 cents U.S.
In the health-care field, Valeant Pharmaceuticals tacked on 33 cents, or 2.3%, to $15.00, while Canopy Growth Corporation added 19 cents, or 1.8%, to $11.07.
In the consumer staples aisle, Empire Company – parent firm of the Sobeys grocery chain – raced higher 82 cents, or 4.7%, to $18.14, while rival Metro improved 27 cents to $40.84.
Canada Goose Holdings made its debut Thursday and closed at $21.75.
Among financials, Sun Life beamed 79 cents, or 1.6%, to $49.60, while Royal Bank of Canada jumped 65 cents to $97.31.
Gold held things down a bit Thursday, with Goldcorp shedding seven cents to $20.49, while Barrick Gold settling 12 cents lower at $25.21.
Among utilities, Hydro One lost seven cents to $23.43, while Fortis Inc. doffed 11 cents to $42.64.
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 3.64 points to 810.92
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups ended the day in the green, with health-care haler 1%, consumer staples heading 0.9% higher, and financials richer 0.5%.
The four laggards were weighed mostly by gold, down 0.8%, utilities, off 0.2%, and industrials, dipping 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks closed mostly lower Thursday as modest gains in financial stocks failed to offset declines in health-care and utilities stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrials finished 17.47 points south of breakeven at 20,932.63. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase were among the top contributors to gains among the Dow 30.
The S&P 500 moved backward 3.98 points to 2,381.28. Utilities fell more than 1% as the worst performer in the index in afternoon trade, followed by the health-care sector, which lost about 1%. Shares of Biogen led declines, dropping nearly 5% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to equal-weight.
Financials traded about 0.5% higher as the top performer in the S&P.
The NASDAQ squeezed 0.71 points higher to 5,900.76
In corporate news, Toronto-based luxury apparel maker Canada Goose Holdings went public on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday.
Shares opened at $18 U.S. and were last trading near $16, about 25% above their IPO price.
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 2.53% from Wednesday’s 2.5%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped three cents to $48.83 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices leaped $25.40 to $1,226.10 U.S. an ounce.
