Stocks in Canada’s largest centre made slight headway as Wednesday’s session got started, due mostly to strength in telecom and financial sectors.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index moved higher 25.83 points to begin the session at 15,499.95
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.17 cents to 80.77 cents U.S
Frontera Energy Corp is seeking to declare force majeure due to protests by Amazonian tribes in Peru that have halted its operations in the country’s biggest oil block, Peru’s energy regulator Perupetro said Tuesday.
Frontera shares were unchanged at $43.26 early in Wednesday’s trading.
RBC cut the target price on Freshii Inc. to $8.00 from $12.00. Freshii shares took on a penny at $5.76.
Eight Capital cut the target price on Gran Tierra Energy to $5.25 from $6.50. Gran Tierra deducted six cents, or 2.1% to $2.87.
The United States on Tuesday unveiled draft text on labour standards during the negotiations on modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement as top officials from the United States and Mexico met with Federal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland in talks in Ottawa.
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz will also hold a press conference at 12:00 p.m. ET, his first since two back-to-back rate hikes, and investors will be looking for clues as to how aggressively the central bank may tighten from here.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange retreated 1.17 points to 774.76
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups gained in the first hour, led by telecoms, up 0.6%, while financials and information technology each picked up 0.5%.
The five laggards were weighed by gold, down 1.4%, consumer staples, off 1.1%, and materials, subsided 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rose Wednesday after a better-than-expected report on business spending and ahead of highly anticipated details on tax reform.
The Dow Jones Industrials recovered 28.58 points to 22,312.90. Goldman Sachs and Boeing had the greatest positive impact on the Dow
Nike had the greatest negative impact on the index, falling more than 4.5% after reporting its slowest quarterly sales growth in nearly seven years and forecasting a further drop in revenue from North America. The athletic wear company did report a 9% increase in Greater China sales.
The S&P 500 moved ahead 5.88 points to 2,502.72. Financial stocks rose more than 1% to lead S&P 500 advancers, followed by gains of more than 0.5% in information technology stocks. Utilities led four sectors lower.
The NASDAQ progressed 40.84 points to 6,421.
U.S. stock index futures climbed after durable goods orders showed a 1.7% increase in August. Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft rose 0.9%, versus the 0.3% increase expected by economists.
Pending home sales fell 2.6% in August.
Meanwhile, the GOP framework on tax reform is expected Wednesday, and President Donald Trump is scheduled to discuss his administration's tax plan later in the day. For months, many market strategists have laid out how the White House's proposed tax reform could significantly increase corporate profits, particularly for financials and small-cap stocks.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped sharply, raising yields to 2.3% from Tuesday’s 2.24%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regained 13 cents a barrel to $52.01 U.S.
Gold prices lost $13.50 to $1,288.20 U.S. an ounce
