Equities in Canada’s largest centre opened higher on Thursday, helped by commodity-related stocks tracking higher metal and crude prices, while investors assessed a bundle of economic data from the United States.
The TSX Composite revived 58.6 points to kick off Thursday at 21,084.38.
The Canadian dollar moved ahead 0.12 cents at 74.05 cents U.S.
Parkland Corporation said on Wednesday that it had temporarily shut down processing operations at its Burnaby refinery in British Columbia after encountering an issue with a processing unit. Parkland shares lost 48 cents, or 1%, to $46.66.
Blackberry poked up three cents to $3.97, after it announced the pricing of private offering of convertible senior notes.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported the number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer—measured as "payroll employment" in the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours—decreased by 88,300 (-0.5%) in November, following a decline of 24,000 (-0.1%) in October.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eked higher 0.42 points to begin Thursday at 550.59.
All but three of the 12 subgroups lost ground on the day, with gold down 1.9%, health-care, tailing off 1.7%, and materials, off 0.9%.
The three gainers were energy, up 1.4%, financials, up 0.3%, and information technology, eking up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks advanced Thursday as investors parsed data indicating continued economic growth and the latest corporate earnings reports.
The Dow Jones Industrials went skyward again, 160.13 points to open at 37,966.52.
The S&P 500 index gained 23.96 points to 4,892.51.
The NASDAQ gathered 72.02 points to 15,553.94.
With those gains, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are both on pace for their six straight winning session.
Tesla slumped 10% after the electric vehicle maker posted disappointing fourth-quarter results and warned of lower vehicle volume growth for 2024. Shares of IBM jumped 8% after the technology company posted adjusted earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ predictions.
More than one-fifth of S&P 500 companies that have reported financials this earnings season, according to FactSet. Nearly 74% of those have surpassed Wall Street expectations, the firm’s data shows.
Gross domestic product data showed the U.S. economy grew at a rate of 3.3% in the fourth quarter. That’s much higher than the 2% expectation from economists polled by Dow Jones, underscoring continued economic resiliency despite interest rate hikes.
Thursday’s report also included encouraging data on the inflation front. The price index for personal consumption expenditures rose 2.7% on an annualized basis, down from 5.9% a year prior. So-called core PCE, which excludes food and energy, increased by 3.2%, down from 5.1%.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury jumped, lowering yields to 4.13% from Wednesday’s 4.18%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regained $1.52 to $76.61 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices regained $8.40 to $2,024.40.
