Canada's main stock index opened lower, before quickly reversing course on Wednesday, led by gold and energy stocks, though investors were on edge ahead of an imminent U.S. interest rate hike.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index tacked on 22.56 points to begin Wednesday’s session at 15,638.92
The Canadian dollar regained 0.64 cents at 77.13 cents U.S.
Among energy stocks making early headway, Suncor gained 17 cents to $43.24, while Imperial Oil surged 17 cents to $34.86.
First Quantum Minerals said on Tuesday that Zambia's tax agency had slapped it with a 76.5-billion-Zambian-kwacha ($8.04-billion U.S.) bill for unpaid import duties, a potentially huge blow for the Ca
Shares in First Quantum backed off 39 cents, or 2.2%, to $17.61
CIBC cut the price target on Alimentation Couche-Tard to $73.00 from $77.00. Couche-Tard shares docked six cents to $59.54.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faded 0.71 points to 830.5
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were in the green, with energy gushing 1.7%, while gold and materials added 0.3% each.
The four laggards were weighed most by consumer staple and industrial stocks, each down 0.2%, while telecoms lost 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks kicked off Wednesday trading little changed as investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's latest decision on monetary policy as well as Jerome Powell's first news conference as chair.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 26.83 points to begin at 24,700.44. Chevron was the best-performing Dow component in early trade,
The S&P 500 gained 0.15 points to 2,717.09, with the energy sector outperforming.
The NASDAQ composite Index added 11.68 points to 7,375.98
In corporate news, Facebook shares added to this week's losses as the social media giant faces an investor lawsuit after reports emerged alleging that Cambridge Analytica, an analytics company, had gathered data from 50 million Facebook profiles without the permission of its users. Facebook fell 1.5%.
General Mills, meanwhile, fell nearly 10%, after the company trimmed its adjusted earnings growth forecast.
Wall Street largely expects the central bank to announce a rate hike following a two-day meeting. Market expectations for a 25 basis-point bump in overnight rates were at 94.4%. Investors will also look for clues about the Fed's tightening trajectory for the rest of 2018.
The central bank will announce its decision Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET. Wall Street will also zero in on Chair Powell's first news conference in the position at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note shrank a bit, raising yields to 2.9% from Tuesday’s 2.89%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slumped 78 cents a barrel to $64.32 U.S.
Gold prices surged $7.50 to $1,319.40 U.S. an ounce.
