Equities in Toronto rose midday Wednesday as gains for financial stocks and grocery operator Empire Co were offset by slips among gold miners and other resource stocks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index strengthened 48.08 points to pause for lunch at 15,329.30
The Canadian dollar hiked 0.7 cents to 76.6 cents U.S.
Big financial stocks rose as investors increased their bets that the country's central bank may hike interest rates as soon as next month.
Royal Bank of Canada was up 0.5% at $94.54 and Bank of Montreal gained 0.8% to $94.95.
Interest rate cuts in 2015 have done their job and the Bank of Canada needs to consider its options as excess capacity is used up, Bank Governor Stephen Poloz said in a CNBC interview in Europe.
Food retailer Empire advanced 8.9% to $20.79. The parent of the Sobeys grocery chain, which is in the midst of a turnaround effort, posted adjusted earnings that beat expectations and increased its dividend payout.
On the other side of the ledger, Gildan Activewear shares fell 2.8% to $40.24 after one of its directors resigned to take up the chief operating officer role at Under Armour, and as CIBC downgraded the stock to neutral from outperform.
Eldorado Gold lost 4.9% to $3.53 after reducing its 2017 outlook for production from its Kisladag operations in Turkey, while larger gold miners also fell.
In the energy field, Suncor Energy declined 0.6% to $38.27 and pipeline operator Enbridge was largely unchanged at $52.77.
Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P fell 4.6% to $41.47 after announcing a $550-million equity offering.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 0.83 points to 769.03
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups had shifted directions and gone positive by noon, as health-care sprouted 0.7%, financials jumped 0.6%, and consumer staples hiked 0.5%.
The three laggards were gold, down 0.5%, utilities, fading 0.4%, and information technology, off 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities traded higher on Wednesday as bank stocks led the charge.
The Dow Jones Industrials continued its climb Wednesday, leaping 166.96 points at 21,477.62, with Goldman Sachs and Disney contributing the most gains
The S&P 500 bounced higher 20.25 points to 2,439.63,.with financials rising 1.5% to lead advancers.
The NASDAQ rocketed 58.78 points, or nearly 1%, to 6,205.40
Investors braced for the release of the Federal Reserve's stress test results.
Analysts expect several big banks to come out of the test with substantial increases in return to shareholders — potentially using cash reserves to pay out more than 100 percent of their profits. As a result, higher figures would also reflect banks' confidence in their own financial health.
Shares of JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs both climbed about 1%.
Most of tech rebounded Wednesday with Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Netflix all trading higher. Shares of Amazon briefly dipped lower after President Donald Trump took a swipe at CEO Jeff Bezos on Twitter.
The tech sector has been the stalwart of the U.S. stock market, rising about 17% for the year. But the tech sector dropped 1.6% Tuesday.
Financials entered Wednesday's session as the second-best-performing sector over the past month, rising 2.4% amid the prospects of higher interest rates.
In economic news, mortgage applications fell 6% last week, while pending home sales fell for the third straight month in May.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note tailed off, raising yields to 2.22% from Tuesday’s 2.21%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 32 cents to $44.56 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices gained $3.20 to $1,250.10 U.S. an ounce.
