Stocks in Toronto ran a rollercoaster on Monday, finishing a bit more substantially in the green after some scary moments around noon, and powered upward mostly by energy and other resource stocks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 77.16 points to 15,274.98.
The Canadian dollar regained 0.26 cents at 75.69 U.S.
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Cenovus Energy Inc, which jumped $1.20, or 12.2%, to $11.02, and Tamarack Valley Energy, which surged 20 cents, or 9.1%, to $2.39
Among materials stocks, Agnico Eagle Mines gained 58 cents, or 1.2%, to $47.31, while First Quantum shot higher $1.30, or 10.6%, to $13.50.
Among gold stocks, Barrick Gold spiked 24 cents, or 1.4%, to $17.17, while Goldcorp traveled higher 17 cents, or 1.4%, to $12.49.
Cannabis producer Aphria plunged $2.94, or 28%,, the most on the TSX, to $7.57, while Canopy Growth dumped $1.23, or 2.7%, to 43.92.
Industrials sank, too, as Air Canada doffed nine cents to $28.91, while Stella-Jones docked 34 cents to $39.80.
The Bank of Canada will raise interest rates early next year, according to a strong majority of economists, who still say two more rate rises will follow by end-2019.
Elsewhere on the economic docket, the headline seasonally-adjusted IHS Markit Canada Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index registered 54.9 in November, up from 53.9 in October, to signal the sharpest improvement in business conditions since August.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 5.89 points Monday to 583.63
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly divided, as energy led the gaining groups with a vault of 3.8%, materials were 2.1% stronger, and gold was 1.4% better.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed mostly by health-care, down 1.9%, industrials, down 0.8%, and real-estate, off 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rose on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day cease-fire in the trade war that has weighed heavily on global stock markets for most of 2018.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rocketed 287.97 points, or 1.3%, to close at 25,826.43
The S&P 500 acquired 30.2 points, or 1.1%, to 2,790.37. The NASDAQ gained 110.98 points, or 1.5%, to 7,441.51
The consumer discretionary sector in the S&P 500 was the best performer, rising 2.5%. Amazon picked up 4.9%, and Apple rose 3.5%.
Shares of General Motors, Ford and Tesla all jumped more than 1.8% after President Trump tweeted that China agreed to cut tariffs on U.S. cars sold into China.
Boeing jumped 3.8%. Caterpillar also rose 2.4% after Bank of America Merrill Lynch said the U.S.-China trade ceasefire presents a 20% upside for the stock. Chip stocks which have operations in China and a large amount of their sales in the country climbed with Micron and Nvidia each adding more than 3.5%.
Steel stocks also jumped, with shares of U.S. Steel rising 3% and AK Steel climbing 6%.
The two leaders, who met for dinner on Saturday at the G-20 summit in Argentina, agreed to hold off on additional tariffs on each other's goods at the start of the New Year to allow for talks to continue. The U.S. agreed to leave tariffs on more than $200 billion worth of Chinese products at 10%.
If after 90 days the two countries are unable to reach an agreement, that rate will be raised to 25%, according to the White House. Trade negotiations will address forced technology transfer and intellectual property.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury regained their lost strength, lowering yields to 2.97% from Friday’s 3%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices leaped $2.16 to $53.09 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices tacked on $10.30 to $1,236.30 U.S. an ounce.
