Stocks in Toronto opened broadly higher on Wednesday, touching their highest level since September as energy stocks, propped higher by stronger crude prices, led the charge.
The S&P/TSX composite index leaped 93.97 points to open Wednesday at 15,483.25
The Canadian dollar dumped 0.20 cents to 79.90 cents U.S.
Magellan Midstream Partners LP and TransCanada Corp., Canada's second-largest pipeline company, said they would develop a pipeline to connect TransCanada's Houston tank terminal to Magellan's East Houston terminal.
TransCanada shares gained 50 cents to $55.87.
CIBC raised the price target on Gibson Energy to $31.00 from $30.00. Gibson shares gained 12 cents to $28.67.
Raymond James raised the price target on Metro Inc to $37.00 from $33.00. Metro shares took on eight cents to $36.88.
NBF raised the rating on Shaw Communications to sector perform from underperform. Shaw shares dipped 14 cents to $27.96.
Economically speaking, Statistics Canada noted this morning that manufacturing sales declined 1.7% to $50.0 billion in February, the fourth decrease in five months.
The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 0.75%. The Bank rate is correspondingly 1% and the deposit rate is 0.5%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange inched up 3.61 points to 699.66
All but two of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher in the first hour, with energy jumping 1.7%, global base metals better by 1%, and metals and mining up 1%.
The two laggards were health-care, down 0.8%, and consumer staples, off 0.04%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded higher on Wednesday as investors continued to digest financial earnings and economic reports.
The Dow Jones Industrials added 92.95 points to open trading at 18,128.95, boosted by a 2.5 percent gain in Intel.
After the bell on Tuesday, the blue chip reported earnings in line with estimates on revenue that missed, but said it expects to benefit from gains in its personal computer chips and its data center business.
The S&P 500 index advanced 10.94 points to 2,106.78, with energy leading all 10 sectors higher.
The NASDAQ index recovered 17.27 points to 4,994.56
Among the several other financial firms posting results before the bell,US Bancorp reported earnings in-line with estimates on revenue that missed. PNC Financial beat on earnings but missed on revenue.
Delta Air Lines earned an adjusted 45 cents per share for its latest quarter, one cent above estimates, with revenue essentially in line.
Delta said this represented the best March quarter in its history, although it added that the strong dollar was presenting headwinds for its international revenue.
After the bell, reports are expected from Netflix, Kinder Morgan,Universal Forest Products and Wintrust Financial.
On the data front, industrial production for March showed a greater-than-expected decline of 0.6%, following a slight gain in February. Capacity utilization also came in slightly below the previous month.
The National Association of Home Builders housing market index showed a sharp increase to 56 in April.
The Federal Reserve's Beige Book comes at 2:00 p.m. ET. Treasury data on international capital flows is due at 4 p.m.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries were unchanged, keeping yields at Tuesday’s 1.90%.
Oil prices leaped 65 cents to $53.94 U.S.
Gold prices gained $3.30 to $1,195.90 U.S.
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