Equities in Toronto completed the week on an upward note, as advances in the health-care sector and tech field moved the index on.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 35.21 points to close Friday and the week at 16,239.22
The Canadian dollar strengthened 0.37 cents at 81.15 cents U.S.
The financials group, which accounts for more than one-third of the TSX's weight, slipped as shares of some of the country's major banks declined. Toronto-Dominion Bank shares lost 45 cents to $73.98, while Scotiabank backtracked 18 cents to $81.66.
Health-care issues sprinted, however, most notably, shares of Canopy Growth, which rose $3.01, or 9.5%, to $34.69 after AltaCorp Capital upgraded the stock to "speculative buy."
Elsewhere, rival cannabis company Aphria triumphed 87 cents, or 4.6%, to $19.98.
Tech stocks like BlackBerry gained 39 cents, or 2.4%, to $16.55, while Constellation Software gathered $6.55 to $795.42.
Industrials were stronger as Bombardier gained 47 cents, or 15.2%, to $3.54, while Air Canada gained two cents to $23.04.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada revealed that this country’s consumer price index rose 1.9% on a year-over-year basis in December, following a 2.1% increase in November.
On a seasonally-adjusted monthly basis, the Consumer Price Index was up 0.2% in December.
Annually, the increase in the CPI was 1.6% in 2017, which followed gains of 1.4% in 2016 and 1.1% in 2015.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 4.68 points to end Friday at 890.80
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher on the day, as health-care ballooned 3%, information technology clicked 1.4% higher, and industrials were better off 0.8%.
Only financials trailed Thursday’s close, off 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks closed sharply higher on Friday as quarterly earnings top estimates, while the economy continues to grow.
The Dow Jones industrial average improved 223.92 points on Thursday’s all-time high to 26,616.71
The S&P 500 added 33.62 points, or 1.2%, to 2,872.87, with tech and health-care as the best-performing sectors, and also reached an all-time high. The broad index also had its biggest one-day gain since March 1, 2017.
The NASDAQ leaped 94.61 points, or 1.3%, to 7,505.77, and notched record highs. It also had its best day since Jan. 2.
The major indexes were also on track to post weekly gains of at least 2%
AbbVie, Honeywell, Intel and Rockwell are among the latest companies to report better-than expected earnings and revenue.
Shares of AbbVie and Honeywell rose 13.8% and 1.9%, respectively, while Intel gained 10.6%. Rockwell advanced 1.7%
Overall, this earnings season has been strong thus far. Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported as of Friday morning, 80% have reported-better-than-expected earnings while 82% have surpassed sales estimates
Wall Street also digested key U.S. economic data on Friday. The Commerce Department the U.S. economy grew by 2.6% during the fourth quarter of 2017. Economists expected a gain of 3%.
Meanwhile, U.S. durable goods orders rose 2.9% in December, according to the Commerce Department. Economists expected an increase of 0.8%.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note hesitated, raising yields to 2.66% from Thursday’s 2.62%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 68 cents a barrel to $66.19 U.S.
Gold prices dulled $14.50 to $1,348.40 U.S. an ounce.
