Markets in Canada’s largest centre extended a 14-week high on Thursday, helped by gains for heavyweight banking and energy stocks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index tacked on 65.32 points to close Thursday at 15,454.92
The Canadian dollar trickled up 0.01 cents to 81.11 cents U.S.
The energy group climbed, despite oil prices being little changed ahead of a meeting of major oil-producing countries.
In particular, Crescent Point popped 30 cents, or 3.2%, to $9.83, while Encana Corp. acquired 30 cents, or 2.2%, to $13.99.
In the health-care field, Valeant Pharmaceuticals gained 22 cents, or 1.3%, to $17.55.
Industrials were also strong, as Air Canada improved 56 cents, or 2.2%, to $26.40, while Magna International jumped 82 cents, or 1.3%, to $65.11.
Among financials, Bank of Nova Scotia gained 1.8% to $79.33 while Toronto-Dominion rose 0.7% to $69.01 after it re-entered the Japanese market with a fixed-income sales desk.
Gold stocks capsized, as Kinross Gold fell 2.6% to $5.21, and Barrick Gold Corp lost 0.8% to $20.15.
In the tech sector, BlackBerry jettisoned 31 cents, or 2.6%, to $11.84, while Constellation Software faded $9.40, or 1.4%, to $680.05.
On the economic ledger, Statistics Canada reported Thursday morning that wholesale sales rose 1.5% to $62.4 billion in July, following a 0.6% decline in June.
Sales were up in five of the seven sub-sectors, representing 86% of total wholesale sales.
The agency also revealed the number of Canadians drawing regular employment insurance benefits jumped in July for the first time in eight months as 536,600 people received regular EI benefits, up 6,800, or 1.3%, from June.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 0.79 points to 775.87
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly split by the close, as energy moved on 1.4%, health-care stocks were 0.9% haler, and industrials rumbled forward 0.8%
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by information technology and gold, each down 0.4%, and utilities, off 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones industrial average fell for the first time in 10 days on Thursday, closing lower even after a small gain after the open of trading took the benchmark to a new record.
The Dow lost 53.36 points from Wednesday’s all-time high at 22,359.23, following a nine-day span that saw the average jump more than 600 points. Apple and Procter & Gamble contributed the most to the losses on Thursday.
The S&P 500 subtracted 7.64 points from Wednesday’s all-time record to 2,500.60, with shares of major technology, telecommunications and consumer staples companies all weighing down the index
The NASDAQ fell 33.35 points to 6,422.69, with shares of Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook all down.
Speaking of things macroeconomic, U.S. weekly jobless claims fell by 23,000 to 259,000, below expectations of 300,000.
The Fed announced Wednesday it will begin rolling off its $4.5-trillion balance sheet starting in October. The central bank did not raise its benchmark interest rate from its current 1% to 1.25% target, however, its updated rate forecast showed that another hike this year is likely.
Bank of American Merrill Lynch officials opined that the probability of a December rate hike according to market futures increased to around 60%.
Financial stocks rose again Thursday as higher interest rates generally correlate with increased profits for the sector. Shares of JPMorgan and Citigroup both climbed over 1% immediately after the announcement.
Financials was one of the few positive sectors in the S&P 500 Thursday, with shares of Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Bank of America all trade above 0.5%.
Nvidia was one of the worst performers in the S&P 500 after media reports that Tesla is working with AMD to develop its own AI chip for self-driving cars; shares fell 3.5%. Currently Tesla vehicles use Nvidia graphics processing units as part of the Autopilot self-driving hardware.
Apple is being scrutinized for its upcoming launch of the Apple Watch Series 3, which reportedly has an issue that could prevent the device from placing and receiving phone calls and text messages. The technology giant's stock weighed down the Dow, falling 1.3%.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell backward, raising yields to 2.28% from Wednesday’s 2.27%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained five cents a barrel to $50.74 U.S.
Gold prices sank $22.10 to $1,294.30 U.S. an ounce
