Equities in Canada’s largest centre sustained a roller-coaster day Wednesday, but finished with their collective heads above water, mostly on the strength of health-care and tech issues.
The TSX poked ahead 15.6 points to conclude Wednesday at 20,720.39.
The Canadian dollar sank 0.28 cents to 74.67 cents U.S.
Health-care stocks spurred the climb, primarily Bausch Health Companies, popping $1.82, or 18.2%, to $11.88, while Canopy Growth triumphed 16 cents, or 5.2%, to $3.25.
Tech stocks also shared in the festivities, with HUT 8 Mining galloping 33 cents, or 13.9%, to $2.71, while Shopify leaped $4.54, or 6.8%, to $71.36.
Among consumer stocks, MTY Food Group advanced $1.62, or 2.3%, to $73.12, while Magna International hiked $1.40, or 1.9%, to $75.89.
Gold and other metals, however, were emphatically down, as Kinross Gold lost 29 cents, or 5.2%, to $5.24, while Torex Gold shed 62 cents, or 3.7%, to $16.07. Agnico Eagle Mines staggered $2.60, or 3.8%, to $65.54, while Fortuna Silver Mines gave up 13 cents, or 2.8%, to $4.54.
In the energy field, Tamarack Valley handed over 23 cents, or 5%, to $4.42, while Parex Resources dipped $1.10, or 4.5%, to $23.41.
Macroeconomically speaking, Statistics Canada reported manufacturing sales fell 1.5% in December, mainly on lower sales of petroleum and coal product, wood product and food industries.
Wholesale sales fell 0.8% to $82.2 billion in December. Declines in the machinery, equipment and supplies subsector and the miscellaneous goods subsector led the losses.
CMHC informed us that the standalone monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of total housing starts for all areas in Canada declined 13% in January (215,365 units) compared to December (248,296 units).
According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, national home sales declined 3% month-over-month in January. Actual (not seasonally adjusted) monthly activity came in 37.1% below January 2022.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 3.25 points to 623.43.
The 12 subgroups were evenly divided, with health-care springing 6.3%, information technology, up 2.7%, and consumer discretionary stocks, ahead 0.8%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by gold, down 2.6%, materials, subsiding 1.5% ,and energy, off 1.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks ticked higher Wednesday as traders mulled a stronger-than-expected retail sales along with the latest U.S. inflation data.
The Dow Jones Industrials recovered 39.07 points, to wrap up Wednesday at 34,128.34,
The S&P 500 was in the plus category 11.47 points to 4,147.60, lifted by shares of SolarEdge better by 9.1%, and Generac, which gained 8%.
The NASDAQ Composite jumped 110.45 points to 12,070.59, boosted by shares of Airbnb, which surged 13.4% after beating earnings expectations. Gains in Tesla, Rivian and Lucid also helped lead the index higher.
Investors will also continue to watch earnings results. Zillow, Shopify and DoorDash are some of the companies schedule to report this week.
Roughly three-quarters of S&P 500 companies have posted their latest results. Of those companies, 69% have beaten earnings expectations. That beat rate is below a three-year average of 79%,
January retail sales rose 3%, while economists polled by Dow Jones anticipated a 1.9% increase. The number signals that the U.S. economy is holding up despite increased rate hikes by the Federal Reserve to tame inflation.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury fell hard, raising yields to 3.80% from Tuesday’s 3.75%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices was negative 40 cents to $78.66 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices was $17.30 to the bad, finishing at $1,848.10 U.S. an ounce.
