Canada's main stock index doggedly kept the slight gains it had amassed Wednesday, led by gains in health-care and energy shares.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index maintained gains of 13.11 points to close Wednesday’s session at 16,149.97
The Canadian dollar added 0.36 cents at 75.21 cents U.S.
Boosting health-care was Aurora Cannabis, which surged $1.47, or 13.8%, the most on the TSX, to $12.11, after naming billionaire investor Nelson Peltz as a strategic adviser.
Elsewhere in the sector, Bausch Health Companies crept up 13 cents to $31.88.
Among energy concerns, Canadian Natural Resources gained 63 cents, or 1.7%, to $37.13, while Imperial Oil acquired 31 cents to $36.75.
In industrial stocks, Bombardier gained eight cents, or 2.8%, to $2.90, while Canadian National Railways picked 25 cents to $272.48.
Consumer discretionary stocks, however, came out a bit on the short end, as Magna International sagged 31 cents to $66.52, while Canadian Tire slumped 62 cents to $146.02.
The real-estate sector also got bruised, as Colliers International Group went south $2.23, or 2.5%, to $85.79.
In tech issues, BlackBerry forfeited five cents to $12.55. Constellation Software dipped $6.83 to $1,115.52.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 3.27 points Wednesday to 624.22
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were negative on the day, with consumer discretionary stocks diving 0.6%, real-estate off 0.4%, and information technology issues 0.3% to the bad.
The five gainers were led by health-care, sprinting 2.6%, energy, up 1.5%, and industrials, ahead 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Wednesday, led by solid gains in tech shares, while investors digested the release of solid economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average spiked 148.23 points to end the session at 25,702.89
The S&P 500 gained 14.9 points to 2,810.92, to close back above 2,800, a key level watched by investors. The S&P 500 also hit its highest level for 2019 and notched a three-day winning streak.
The NASDAQ Composite improved 52.37 points to 7,643.40.
The S&P 500 tech sector rose 0.7% led by a 375% gain in Nvidia. Tech shares have been on fire this week, with the sector rising more than 3.5%.
Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Alphabet and Apple all closed higher on Wednesday.
J.P. Morgan Chase closed 0.3% amid reports the bank was expanding into several new markets, including some that are dominated by Bank of America. Other bank shares also rose, with Citigroup and Bank of America advancing more than 1% each.
Boeing shares initially lifted the broader market, rising more than 1%, but later gave back most of that gain after the U.S. and Canada announced they would ban flights from the company's beleaguered 737 MAX jets. Canada and the U.S. joined several countries, including China, the European Union and Indonesia, in grounding all flights involving the plane after two deadly crashes in less than six months, including one on Sunday.
Equities got a boost Wednesday after the Commerce Department said non-defense durable goods orders posted their largest increase in six months in January, rising 0.8%. Overall durable goods orders also rose 0.4% while economists expected a decline of 0.5%.
Meanwhile, U.S. construction spending posted its biggest increase in nine months, rising 1.3% in January. The leap was driven by a surge in public-project investments.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, raising yields to 2.61% from Tuesday’s 2.6%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices acquired $1.50 to $58.37 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices $12.50 to $1,310.60 U.S. an ounce.
