Equities in Canada’s largest market advanced on Monday to near record highs as commodity prices helped fuel energy and mining stocks to lead broad gains.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 56.54 points to greet noon at 16,076.70
The Canadian dollar recovered 0.14 cents to 78.49 cents U.S.
Gold miner Franco Nevada Corp, which jumped 4.5% to $106.17 after reporting stronger-than-forecast results, was the most influential gainer. Energy stocks made up the remaining top five biggest contributors to the index.
Encana Corp was up 3.4% to $16.29, while Cenovus Energy climbed 3.9% to $14.10.
Oil and gas companies rallied as crude prices touched their highest since July 2015 after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tightened his grip on power with the arrest of royals, ministers and investors. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter.
The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and other resource firms, rose with Agnico Eagle Mines climbing 2.2% to $57.55.
Canopy Growth extended its recent rally, jumping 8.7% to $18.40.
Air Canada was among the few notable decliners, falling 3.1% to $24.12.
On the economic slate, Western University’s IVEY School of Business said its Purchasing Managers’ Index leaped in October to 63.8, compared to 59.6 in September, and 59.7 in October. The index solicits information from purchasing managers of businesses and asks whether their purchases improved, fell, or stayed static, and any reading over 50 indicates expansion.
The federal government's plan to legalize recreational marijuana by next July could be in jeopardy, with opposition brewing among some in the Senate and concerns that the deadline to pass the bill is rapidly approaching.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange stayed positive 4.33 points to 796.31
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly divided, with health-care stronger by 3.4%, energy gushing 2.1% and gold shinier 1.7%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by consumer discretionaries, down 0.6%, while industrials and information technology, each off 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities hit record highs on Monday after Broadcom made a $130-billion offer to buy Qualcomm.
The Dow Jones industrial average nicked up 2.44 points to Friday’s record high to 23,541.63
The S&P 500 moved higher 1.87 points to 2,589.71, another all-time peak,
The NASDAQ Composite sprinted 10.99 points to another all-time record to 6,775.43.
Broadcom offered to buy fellow chip maker Qualcomm for $70 a share. If completed, the deal would be the biggest in the history of the tech sector. Reports of a potential bid first surfaced on Friday.
Qualcomm rose 1.4% while Broadcom slipped 0.7%.
The proposed deal comes after President Donald Trump said last week that Broadcom would move its headquarters to the U.S. from Singapore. However, Qualcomm is expected to resist the offer.
Elsewhere, shares of Advanced Micro Devices jumped on a report that the company will team up with Intel to compete with Nvidia in the laptop gaming chip market.
AMD traded 5.5% higher, while Intel rose 0.3%, and Nvidia shares gained 0.1%.
Earnings season moved forward on Monday, with CVS Health, Michael Kors and Mylan among the companies that reported before the bell.
Overall, it has been a very solid earnings season. Analysts at Credit Suisse said in a note that earnings are beating estimates by 6.1%, with 70% of S&P 500 companies topping bottom-line estimates.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note gained a bit of turf, lowering yields to 2.32% from Friday’s 2.33%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices strengthened $1.45a barrel to $57.09 U.S.
Gold prices shot higher $11.20 an ounce to $1,280.40 U.S.
