Canada’s largest stock index was slightly higher as gains in Canadian National Railway’s shares boosted industrial stocks and steadying gold prices lifted precious metals miners.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 9.05 points to greet noon at 15,561.11
The Canadian dollar inched up 0.1 cents to 77.95 cents U.S.
CN Rail rose 31 cents to $96.89 providing the biggest boost to Canada’s main index. The country’s largest railroad posted a fall in quarterly profit on Monday, but some analysts said its operational challenges were likely to ease this year.
Also boosting the index was a 3.8% increase in Restaurant Brands International Inc’s shares to $71.68, after the Burger King owner posted a better than expected profit.
Barrick Gold Corp and Teck Resources were among the stocks that lifted the materials index, which includes precious and base metals miners.
Barrick said it was done selling assets to cut debt and would instead use funds from future sales for growth or to pay dividends. Its shares rose 3.6% to $17.17.
Centerra Gold was up 3.5% to $8.06, after Chaarat Gold Holdings offered to buy the company’s gold mine Kumtor, the largest in Kyrgyzstan.
Teck Resources shares were down 25 cents to $32.95, after the world’s second-biggest exporter of steelmaking coal reported higher-than-expected adjusted first-quarter earnings as sales volumes climbed.
The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Mitel Networks Corp, which rose 9.5% to $14.28, after the company said it is selling itself to an investor group led by Searchlight Capital Partners for about $2 billion.
PrairieSky Royal, down 7.2% to $29.50, was the largest decliner on the index.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange sagged 1.75 points to 795.66
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were positive by noon ET, as gold gained 0.8%, while health-care and materials each tacked on 0.6%.
The three laggards were consumer staples, down 0.8%, utilities, off 0.5%, and real-estate, sagging 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks fell on Tuesday as investors were left disappointed by a recent batch of corporate earnings releases while the 10-year Treasury note yield rose to a four-year high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 258.76 points, or 1.1%, to 24,189.93, with 3M as the worst-performing stock in the index.
The S&P 500 settled back 18.04 points to 2,652.16, with industrials and technology sliding.
The NASDAQ Composite index lost 75.19 points, or 1.1%, to 7,053.41
Before the bell, 3M reported quarterly earnings that met analyst expectations, but the stock dropped about nearly 8% after the company cut its full-year earnings guidance. Alphabet, meanwhile, topped bottom-line estimates but its stock declined more than 3% as analysts warned of lower profitability near term for the company.
Caterpillar also reported better-than-expected earnings but erased those gains to trade 2.9% lower.
Investors initially cheered the quarterly results released Tuesday, as the major averages opened higher after rose United Technologies, Verizon and Coca-Cola reported better-than-expected earnings.
Corporate earnings this season have mostly outperformed analyst expectations thus far. Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported as of Tuesday morning, 83% have posted better-than-forecast earnings.
Bank stocks surged as J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America all rose more than 1% each.
In economic data, new home sales, consumer confidence and the Richmond Fed Survey of Manufacturing Activity were all scheduled to be published this morning.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped slightly, raising yields to 2.99% from Monday’s 2.98%. Treasury prices and yields
move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped eight cents a barrel to $68.56 U.S.
Gold prices regained $6.50 to $1,330.50 U.S. an ounce.
