Canada's main stock index rose on Thursday on a boost from financial shares, while investors weighed prospects of early rate cuts after data pointing to resilience in the U.S. labour market.
The TSX Composite regained 57.36 points to open Thursday at 20,875.94.
The Canadian dollar sank 0.05 cents to 74.85cents U.S.
Among individual stocks, Superior Plus fell 26 cents, or 2.7%, to $9.34, after Raymond James downgraded the Canadian propane distributor to "market perform" from "outperform".
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eked higher 1.05 points to 551.12.
The 12 subgroups were evenly split, with financials ahead 0.6%, information technology better by 0.4%, and industrials up 0.3%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by health-care, down 0.9%, communications off 0.4%, and materials lower 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded higher Thursday as investors looked to recover from an early year slump.
The 30-stock index surged 200.63 points to start off Thursday at 37,630.82.
The S&P 500 regained 13.46 points to 4,718.27.
The NASDAQ slid 5.52 points, to 14,586.69, marking its fifth consecutive losing session.
Mega-cap tech stocks such as Apple are underperforming to start the year, as overstretched valuations and uncertainty around when the Federal Reserve will begin to cut rates have investors worried that markets have gotten overly optimistic.
Apple stock is down more than 5% this week. Shares of the tech giant fell 1.4% on Thursday following a downgrade by Piper Sandler, two days after Barclays also lowered its rating on the name.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury jumped, forcing down yields to 3.98% from Wednesday’s 3.91%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell 36 cents to $72.34 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices recovered $9.90 to $2,052.70.
