The Toronto stock market turned modestly higher late morning Wednesday amid strong gains in telecom and industrial stocks.
The S&P/TSX composite index rallied 58.61 points to greet noon Wednesday at 12,719.05
The Canadian dollar was up 0.04 at 97.53 cents U.S.
The telecom sector was the leading advancer as Telus Corp. rose $1.37 to $70.59.
Railway stocks help push the industrial sector higher with Canadian Pacific Railway ahead $2.67 to $123.40.
The energy sector was ahead as Canadian Natural Resources gained 34 cents to $30.77.
Among gold issues, Goldcorp Inc. fell 55 cents to $33.89.
The base metals sector was slightly lower while May copper was down a cent at $3.57 U.S. a pound. Taseko Mines declined four cents to $2.86.
Sherritt International lost 37 cents to $5.33 as the miner reported Wednesday that it had a $17.3-million net loss, or six cents per share, in the fourth quarter. After adjusting to remove certain items, Sherritt had $6.2 million of net earnings or three cents per share.
Analysts had estimated 11 cents per share of net income and six cents per share of adjusted earnings.
Sherritt also announced Tuesday it has increased its quarterly dividend to 4.3 cents per share, up from 3.8 cents per share.
Sears Canada Inc. reported it had $39.9 million of net earnings in the fourth quarter or 39 cents per share, little changed from the year-earlier period. However, revenue and same-store sales declined during the important holiday shopping period as total revenue fell to just under $1.3 billion, down about $60 million from a year earlier and its shares gave back 38 cents to a fresh 52-week low of $8.92.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange sank 1.88 points to 1,130.03
Nine of the 14 Toronto subgroups gained ground midday, led by health-care issues, up 1.4%, while telecoms and energy each surged 1.1%.
The four laggards were weighed by gold, off 1.6%, materials, down 0.5%, and the metals and mining group, off 0.1%.
Information technology stocks were flat by noon.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rallied Wednesday as investors welcomed another upbeat report on the housing market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rocketed higher 123.05 points to 14,023.20
The S&P 500 index added 13.31 points to 1,510.25. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite prospered 37.07 points to 3,166.72
Homebuilder stocks rallied on Wednesday, with shares of Hovnanian jumping 3%, leading rivals Toll Brothers, DR Horton and Lennar
Investors are also keeping tabs on Apple's annual shareholders meeting.
Apple shareholders will not be voting on a controversial proposal that would have limited the company's ability to issue preferred stock. Hedge fund manager David Einhorn, who had launched an activist campaign to unlock some of Apple's $137-billion U.S. cash hoard, sued to prevent Apple from putting the proposal to a vote.
Shares of Priceline rose after the online travel site beat profit forecasts.
First Solar shares sank after the renewable energy firm missed sales forecasts.
Shares of Dollar Tree jumped after the discount retailer said it earned $1.01 per share on sales of $2.25 billion U.S. in the fourth quarter.
Gun maker Sturm Ruger will report results after the closing bell, along with Groupon and J.C. Penney among others.
Economically speaking, the U.S. Census Bureau said durable goods orders dropped $11.8 billion, or 5.2%, in January. This was a steeper decline that the decrease of 3.5% projected by a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
The Dreamliner issues with Boeing and the drying up of defense spending appear to have played a role. Excluding transportation, new orders would have increased 1.9%.
Pending home sales, which reflects the number of contract signings, rose 4.5% in January, according to the National Association of Realtors. It was the highest reading since April 2010, when pending home sales jumped ahead of the expiration of a popular tax credit for home buyers.
Prices on the 10-year U.S. Treasury lost ground, dropping yields back to Tuesday’s 1.88%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regained 48 cents to $93.11 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slipped $11.90 to $1,603.70 U.S. an ounce.
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