Stocks in Canada’s biggest market recovered new strength by midday Wednesday, after a robust U.S. inflation report had weighed on investor sentiment, and mining stocks climbed with commodity prices.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index strengthened 55.61 points to greet noon at 15,272.08
The Canadian dollar recovered 0.17 cents to 79.6 cents U.S.
The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners, added strength, as the prices of gold, silver and copper posted strong gains. Barrick Gold advanced 2.5% to $17.04, and Goldcorp rose 2.6% to $16.39.
Among financials, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lost 0.4% to $114.24, and Bank of Nova Scotia declined 0.4% to $76.58.
The energy group slipped, as Suncor Energy fell 1.1% to $41.72.
The largest percentage gainer on the exchange was Colliers International, which rose 7%. The largest decliner was Crew Energy, down 3.1%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange popped 8.34 points, or 1%, to 829.52
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups turned positive by noon, as gold hiked 3.6%, materials were better by 2.3%, and health-care blossomed 1.5%
The three laggards were utilities, down 0.9%, telecoms, wilting 0.5%, and consumer staples, off 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks erased earlier losses on Wednesday as banks and traded higher.
The Dow Jones industrial average faded 5.89 points to move into noon hour at 24,634.56, after falling as much as 150 points. Goldman Sachs contributed the most to the gains, rising 1.2%.
The S&P 500 added 10.62 points to 2,673.56, with financials and tech as the best-performing sectors. Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley all traded higher.
The NASDAQ tacked on 65.8 points to 7,079.31, advanced 0.7%, as shares of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet rose.
U.S. equities opened lower on the back of stronger-than-expected inflation data. The consumer price index rose 0.5% in January. Economists expected a gain of 0.3%. Investors also digested weaker-than-expected retail sales for last month
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped, raising yields to 2.90% from Tuesday’s 2.84%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices recouped 16 cents a barrel to $59.35 U.S.
Gold prices hiked $18.50 to $1,348.90 U.S. an ounce.
