Stocks in Canada’s largest market showed strength toward the closing bell on Wednesday, as advances in the energy sector counteracted losses for health-care and gold.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 32.75 points, and close Wednesday at 15,509.75
The Canadian dollar retreated 0.12 cents to 77.85 cents U.S.
One of the largest percentage gainers on the TSX was Arc Resources, up 35 cents, or 2.4%, to $14.76.
Among the most active Canadian stocks by volume was Cenovus Energy, which gained 65 cents, or 5.3%, to $12.84, after the company posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss as near-full pipelines increased transportation costs and reduced profit margins.
In industrial stocks, Canadian Pacific Railway mushroomed in price $5.78, or 2.6%, to $231.63, while rival Canadian National gained $2.12, or 2.2%, to $98.25.
Consumer staples also prospered, with Saputo picking up 44 cents, or 1.1%, to $41.45, while Loblaw Companies prospered 55 cents to $65.08.
Aurora Cannabis was among the most actively traded on the Canadian index, but plummeted in price 44 cents, or 5.3%, to $7.80, while Canopy Growth lost $1.00, or 3.5%, to $27.24.
Gold stocks took a beating, as Goldcorp lost 45 cents, or 2.4%, to $17.96, where Kinross Gold lost two cents to $5.00
Among utilities, Hydro One ditched seven cents to $20.43.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 5.45 points to 783.79
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were negative on the day, as health-care lost 1.5%, while gold doffed 0.7%, utilities headed south 0.5%
The five gainers were led by energy, improving 1.3%, industrials, up 0.8%, and consumer staples, ahead 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher for the first time in six sessions on Wednesday, recovering from sharp losses seen earlier in the day, as Boeing soared on strong earnings.
The Dow charged out of the negative regions to gain 59.7 points by the closing bell to 24,083.83.
Boeing rose 4.2% after reporting quarterly results that easily beat analyst expectations. The stock's rise helped the Dow bounce back from a 200-point-plus deficit and snap a five-day losing streak.
The S&P 500 recovered 4.84 points to 2,639.40
The NASDAQ Composite index came off its lows of the day, to within 3.62 points of breakeven, to 7,003.74
The recent market volatility is taking place despite a string of strong corporate earnings. Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported thus far, 81% have topped analyst expectations, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
On Tuesday, Caterpillar posted earnings and revenue that beat expectations, but the shares fell after the company's CFO said their first-quarter results may have been the "high watermark" for the year. Those remarks helped push the market lower in the previous session.
Twitter also reported stronger-than-forecast earnings on Wednesday, but the stock fell 2.4%. Comcast also released better-than-expected earnings Wednesday.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped slightly, raising yields to 3.03% from Tuesday’s 3%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 34 cents a barrel to $68.04 U.S.
Gold prices dropped $8.20 to $1,324.80 U.S. an ounce.
