Canada's main stock index made perilously slight gains by the closing bell Monday, as rising metal prices led to gains in material stocks, with hopes of resolution in the U.S.-China trade dispute boosting the sentiment. Health-care issues added much to market momentum.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index inched up 7.32 points to end Monday at 16,331.03
The Canadian dollar gained 0.65 cents to 76.65 cents
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Aurora Cannabis, which jumped $1.03, or 15.9%, to $7.53. Canopy Growth sprinted $4.78, or 10.8%, to $48.96.
Barrick Gold's rose 10 cents to $13.20, while New Gold, increased 2.5 cents, or 1.9%, to $1.35 after Canaccord Genuity raised rating to "hold" from "sell".
Shares of Enbridge climbed 20 cents to $47.24, and Canadian Natural Resources picked up 11 cents to $44.75.
On the downside, Restaurant Brands faded 64 cents to $79.80, while Saputo dipped 28 cents to $41.64.
Tech stocks took some shots, as Constellation Software dipped $12.81, or 1.4%, to $928.96, while Shopify sagged $1.01 to $178.08.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 8.47 points to 686.48
The 12 subgroups were evenly split, with health-care popping 7.4%, with energy and gold each climbing 0.4%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by consumer staples, falling 0.9%, while information technology lost 0.4%, and telecoms surrendered 0.3%
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks neared a new record as investors renewed their bets that trade wars and other geopolitical worries wouldn't derail this bull market, which is set to become the longest rally ever this week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 89.37 points to 25,758.69, with Nike outperforming. Nike shares rose 3.1% after Piper Jaffray upgraded the athletic apparel maker to overweight from neutral and raised their price target to $93 a share from $72. The stock traded around $82 per share.
The S&P 500 picked up 6.92 points to 2,857.05, and was now just under 0.6% from its record reached in January.
The NASDAQ forged into the greet 4.68 points to 7,821.01, as a 3.5% rise in Netflix offset a decline in Facebook. Netflix shares rose after the company confirmed it was testing ads on its platform.
Stocks kicked off this week within striking distance of reaching all-time highs. The S&P 500 was just 0.8% below a record set on Jan. 26, while the Dow was 3.6% and the NASDAQ 1.5%, below their all-time highs.
This week could also be record-setting for Wall Street for another reason. On Wednesday, the bull market turns 3,453 days old. Barring a 20% decline between now and then, some strategists believe it would mark the longest bull market in history.
Many strategists believe the current bull market started on March 9, 2009. Since then, the S&P 500 has surged more than 300%.
PepsiCo agreed to buy SodaStream for $3.2 billion, or $144 per share. The agreed price per share represents a 10.9% premium from SodaStream's closing price of $129.85 on Friday. The deal is expected to close by January. SodaStream shares rose about 9.4%.
Meanwhile, Tyson Foods confirmed it was buy Keystone Foods, a chicken- processing company, for $2.16 billion in cash.
Facebook's stock slipped 0.8% on media reports the U.S. government is trying to force the company to break its encryption on the Messages app.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained sharply, lowering yields to 2.82% from Friday’s 2.87%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices added 54 cents at $66.10 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gathered $12 to $1,196.20 U.S. an ounce.
