Canada's main stock index rose on Monday, led by gains in tech and consumer staples stocks, ahead of a key report that could help guide Bank of Canada's interest rate policy, and after officials in U.S. President Donald Trump's administration highlighted that the trade dispute with China could be resolved through talks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index climbed 78.78 points to approach noon at 15,286.19
The Canadian dollar vaulted 0.33 cents at 78.63 cents U.S.
Kinder Morgan Canada tumbled $2.01, or 10.9%, to $16.43, after the oil producer on Sunday suspended most work on a $7.4-billion oil pipeline expansion that has become the focus of protests.
Crescent Point Energy rose 19 cents, or 2.2%, to $9.36, after private investment firm Cation Capital said it would nominate four candidates to the oil producer's board.
Baytex Energy enjoyed 2.9%, or 10-cent, increase, to $3.85, while the aforementioned Kinder Morgan was the largest decliner.
Neovasc Inc, Les Ressources Yorbeau and Kinross Gold were among the most active Canadian stocks by volume.
Folks familiar with the matter say talks to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement are not advanced enough for the United States, Mexico and Canada to announce a deal "in principle" at this month's Summit of the Americas in Lima
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange inched up 1.31 points to 770.46
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups remained positive by noon, with information technology soaring 1.7%, consumer staples up 1.2%, and industrials better by 0.8%.
The three laggards were gold, settling 1.1%, health-care 0.9% the worse for wear, and telecoms down 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks traded higher on Monday as the Trump administration tried to soften its tone regarding U.S.-China trade relations. Strong gains in tech also helped the major indexes surge.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average skyrocketed 361.29 points, or 1.5%, to reach noon at 24,294.05, with Merck and Intel as the best-performing stocks in the index.
The S&P 500 gained 42.21 points, or 1.6%, to 2,646.68, with tech surging 2%
The NASDAQ Composite index popped 153.48 points, or 2.2%, to 7,069.61
Shares of Amazon, Apple and Alphabet all rose more than 1.5% Facebook, meanwhile, traded 1.1% higher.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday he does not expect a trade war between the U.S. and China to take place. Mnuchin made his comments after telling media outlets on Friday that a trade war between the two largest world economies was possible.
Last week, China announced fresh tariffs on 106 U.S. products, which then saw Trump going on to threaten more levies, saying that he had asked the United States Trade Representative to consider $100 billion in additional tariffs against the Asian nation.
Caterpillar shares climbed 2%. The aerospace giant is seen as a company that could be adversely affected by a trade war.
The next corporate earnings season kicks off later in the week with financial companies BlackRock, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo all scheduled to release their quarterly results.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note went lower, raising yields to 2.81% from Friday’s 2.78%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $1.24 a barrel to $63.30 U.S.
Gold prices recovered 60 cents to $1,336.70 U.S. an ounce.
