Stocks in Canada’s largest market rose on Wednesday, boosted by energy shares as oil prices hovered near six-week highs, while investors also focused on a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting where it is widely expected to raise interest rates.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index leaped 118.86 points to greet noon at 15,735.22
The Canadian dollar regained 0.68 cents at 77.16 cents U.S.
The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Enerplus Corp, which rose $1.40, or 9.7% to $15.80. Westshore Terminals Investment lost 24 cents, or 1.1% fall to $21.63
First Quantum nicked ahead seven cents to $18.07 after Zambia's tax agency on Tuesday slapped the company with $8.04 billion in unpaid import duties.
Trican Well Services were up 15 cents , or 4.7% to $3.35.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faded 0.44 points to 830.77
All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups were in the green, with energy gushing 3.3%, while materials added 1.3%, and gold hiked 1%.
The two laggards were telecoms, down 0.3%, and consumer staples, off 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded higher Wednesday as investors prepared for the Federal Reserve's latest decision on monetary policy and Chair Jerome Powell's first news conference.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 127.21 points to 24,854.48, with a 1% gain in Boeing leading the blue-chip index higher.
The S&P 500 gained 11.94 points to 2,728.94, with energy rising 2.5%.
The NASDAQ composite Index added 11.94 points to 7,388.48, supported by a 2% bounce in Facebook shares.
In corporate news, Facebook shares recovered from this week's lows with a 2% gain. 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.
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 2.91% from Tuesday’s 2.89%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices grew $1.54 a barrel to $65.08 U.S.
Gold prices brightened $12.70 to $1,324.600 U.S. an ounce.
