Equities in Canada’s biggest market found a mildly upward path midday Wednesday, with gains for financial stocks offset by losses among gold miners.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index strengthened 38.61 points to greet noon and approach the halfway point of the week at 16,337.49
The Canadian dollar slid 0.28 cents at 80.19 cents U.S.
The materials group lost ground, as Goldcorp lost 2.1% to $18.73. The miner's chief executive officer said the company is "done" with mergers and acquisitions and will focus on building new mines at projects it already owns and on improving existing operations.
Iamgold advanced 4.6% to $7.93 after the company reported quarterly results and provided a 2018 outlook.
The financials group only gained a bit, but several of its biggest members were among the most influential gainers, with Royal Bank of Canada up 0.4% at $106.12 and Fairfax Financial Holdings Inc adding 1.1% to $662.75.
Canopy Growth gained 2.4% to $37.41 after saying on Tuesday it had signed an agreement to supply cannabis to Prince Edward Island.
The Bank of Canada did as expected Wednesday morning and raised rates to 1.25% on the back of strong jobs growth, even amid uncertainty around the fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1.5% and the deposit rate is 1%
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gave up 5.26 points to 883.01
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher, as consumer discretionary triumphed 1%, with real-estate and financials ahead 0.5% each.
The three laggards were gold, dulling 0.6%, materials, off 0.5%, and consumer staples, sliding 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks traded higher on Wednesday following the release of stronger-than-expected quarterly results from some of the biggest U.S. companies.
The Dow Jones Industrials jumped 190.88 points to 25,983.74
The S&P 500 gained 15.23 points to 2,791.65, with staples and health care as the best-performing sectors.
The NASDAQ composite index recovered 38.11 points to 7,261.80
Bank of America reported adjusted quarterly earnings that surpassed analyst estimates. U.S. Bancorp also posted better-than-expected results.
Earnings season is off to a strong start thus far. Of the S&P 500 companies that had reported as of Friday, 69% have surpassed earnings-per-share estimates while 85% have beaten expectations on the top line
Shares of Juno Therapeutics spiked 47.9% higher after The Wall Street Journal reported the company was in talks to be acquired by Celgene.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note sagged, raising yields to 2.56% from Tuesday’s 2.54%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regained 28 cents a barrel to $64.01 U.S.
Gold prices sank $3.80 to $1,333.30 U.S. an ounce.
