Canada's main stock index rose on Friday, aided by gains in technology and health-care shares, while cybersecurity company Blackberry rose on the back of upbeat corporate earnings.
The S&P/TSX regained 339.28 points, or 1.8%, to reach noon at 19,056.40.
The Canadian dollar hiked 0.49 cents to 77.49 cents U.S.
As for BlackBerry, the company gained 23 cents or, 3.3%, to $7.22, after trumping estimates for first-quarter revenue on Thursday, powered by growth in its auto products and cybersecurity services segments.
Other Toronto-based stocks such as Bausch Health Companies, gained $1.65, or 17.5%, to $11.10, while Aurora Cannabis took on 12 cents, or 6.5%, to $1.97.
Statistics Canada reported its Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours—measuring number of employees receiving pay or benefits from their employer -- increased by 126,000 (or 0.7%) in April.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 5.48 points to 637.27.
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups gained ground, with health-care rocketing 4.2%, information technology up 2.7%, and energy rumbling 1.8%.
The lone laggard was gold, down 0.7%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks jumped Friday as Wall Street looked to grind out a rare positive week in what has been a rough first half of the year.
The Dow Jones Industrials leaped 654.62 points, or 2.1%, to 31,331.98.
The S&P 500 hiked 91.5 points, or 2.4%, to 3,886.31.
The tech-heavy NASDAQ popped 269.30 points, or 2.4%, to 11,501.49.
Those moves come as the stock market appears to have found some stability this week, at least for the short term. The S&P 500 is up 5% for the week, while the NASDAQ is up 6% and the Dow is 4% higher. All three averages are looking to snap three-week losing streaks.
On the corporate front, Cruise line stocks led the S&P 500 gains. Shares of Carnival Corporation rallied 9% after the company said booking volumes in its most recent quarter were “nearly double” the volumes in the first quarter, or the company’s “best quarterly booking volumes since the beginning of the pandemic.”
Royal Caribbean Group surged 12%. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ rallied 11%. Wynn Resorts was up 8%.
On the corporate front, shares of FedEx surged 9% despite a mixed fourth-quarter report after the logistics company delivered an upbeat earnings forecast
Consumer sentiment hit a record low reading of 50 in June, according to a University of Michigan survey released Friday morning.
While on the surface that is not positive for the market, investors liked a figure inside the report which showed 12-month inflation expectations by consumers easing back to 5.3%.
Treasury prices were lower, raising yields to 3.12% from Thursday’s 3.09%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices soared $3.05 to $107.32 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slid $1.30 to $1,828.60 U.S. an ounce.
