Stocks in Toronto were little changed in early trade on Thursday as miners rose with higher metal prices and telecom and healthcare names pulled back.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index edged forward 3.67 points to open for business Thursday at 16,140.26.
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.19 cents to 77.83 cents U.S.
Cenovus Energy said on Thursday it will cut an additional 15% of its workforce and lower operating expenses as new chief executive, Alex Pourbaix, works aggressively to cut costs and lower debt.
Cenovus shares were unchanged in the first hour at $11.92.
Bombardier in the middle of a five-year plan to turn around its ailing business, on Thursday forecast 2018 revenue that came in well short of analysts' estimates.
The plane and train maker said its stock inch up a penny to $3.14.
Nebraska's main anti-pipeline group is trying to rally opposition to the TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL project's recently approved route through the state, tracking down landowners it says were not given a voice in the regulatory process.
TransCanada started trading Thursday up a penny at $62.50
CIBC raised the rating on Element Fleet Management to outperform from neutral.
Element shares dropped six cents to $10.40.
National Bank of Canada resumes coverage on K Bro Linen with an outperform rating. K Bro shares fell 47 cents, or 1.1%, to $42.03.
Credit Suisse starts coverage on Stelco Holdings with an outperform rating and a $24.00 target. Stelco shares gained 23 cents, or 1%, to $22.43.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada revealed In October, new house prices in Canada rose 3.5% year over year, down from this year's largest increase of 3.9%.
Vancouver, up 8.4%, and London, ahead 8.1%, had the largest 12-month increases among the surveyed metropolitan areas.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange improved 2.57 points to 801.14
The 12 TSX subgroups were divided between gainers and losers, with information technology surging 0.6%, consumer discretionary stocks up 0.3%, and utilities better by 0.2%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by gold, settling 0.9%, telecoms fell 0.5%, and health-care was off 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded higher on Thursday after Disney agreed to buy some of 21st Century Fox's assets.
The Dow Jones industrials improved 39.98 points on Wednesday’s record close to 24,625.41
The S&P 500 picked up 3.66 points to 2,666.51, with financials and industrials leading advancers.
The NASDAQ composite index attached 12.62 points to 6,888.42
Disney said Thursday it will pay $52.4 billion in stock to buy Fox's movie studios, network Nat Geo, and Asian pay-TV operator Star TV, among other assets.
The acquisition bolsters Disney's plans to become a dominant streaming service platform, making it a bigger threat to Netflix.
Shares of Disney and Fox ticked higher in early trade.
On Thursday, Wall Street received a slew of economic data. Weekly jobless claims totaled 225,000, well below an estimate of 239,000. Meanwhile, retail sales rose 0.8% in November versus an estimated increase of 0.3%.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note descended, raising yields to 2.38% from Wednesday’s 2.35%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices inched up two cents a barrel to $56.62 U.S.
Gold prices moved up $5.80 to $1,254.40 U.S. an ounce.
