The Toronto stock market enjoyed a strong gain in afternoon trading Wednesday amid higher oil prices that offset negative news on Canadian manufacturing and the short-term outlook for the economy.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 61.58 points to close Wednesday at 15,450.87. May crude oil contract surged, after investors got some encouraging news from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The U.S. agency reported that American inventories of crude were up for a 14th consecutive week in the period ended April 10.
However, the 1.3-million-barrel increase was much less than the 3.5 million barrels analysts had expected.
The Canadian dollar shot up 1.13 cents to 81.23 cents U.S.
Energy plays such as Birchcliff Energy soared 59 cents, or 8.2%, to $7.78, while Crew Energy gained 37 cents, or 7.3%, to $5.47.
Gold proved also solid, with China Gold International climbing 35 cents, or 20.2%, to $2.08, while Argonaut Gold spiked 10 cents, or 5.3%, to $1.98.
Metals and mining stocks also strengthened, with Turquoise Hill Resources starring 15 cents, or 3.1%, to $5.05.
Health-care stocks took a step back from their earlier pedestal, as Valeant Pharmaceuticals backtracked $7.23, or 2.8%, to $253.68.
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 1% and the deposit rate is 0.5%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 9.17 points to 705.22
All but three of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher on the day, with energy gushing 2.8%, while metals and mining and gold groups were each better by 1.8%.
The three laggards were health-care, down 2.4%, consumer staples, off 1%, and consumer discretionaries, down 0.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks closed higher on Wednesday as oil hit highs for the year and investors continued to digest financial earnings and economic reports.
The Dow Jones Industrials grew 75.91 points to end the session at 18,112.61, with Intel leading advancers and UnitedHealth the greatest laggard.
The S&P 500 index advanced 10.77 points to 2,106.61, with energy leading all sectors except consumer staples higher.
The NASDAQ index recovered 33.73 points to 5,011.02.
Before the open on Tuesday, Bank of America posted a first-quarter profit, swinging from a surprise loss a year earlier when it took a charge of $6 billion U.S. for litigation expenses.
However, the bank saw a slight decline in its investment banking and equity and debt market businesses while JPMorgan Chase reported investment banking fees and core trading revenues were both up about 20% year over year.
Among the several other financial firms posting results before the bell, U.S. Bancorp reported earnings in-line with estimates on revenue that missed. PNC Financial beat on earnings but missed on revenue.
Charles Schwab said its first-quarter net income fell 7% to $302 million U.S. on slower client trading activity and higher spending focused in part on the discount brokerage's new robo-adviser offering.
Delta Air Lines led gains in the Dow transports after reporting an adjusted 45 cents U.S. per share for its latest quarter, one cent above estimates, with revenue essentially in line.
The airline 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.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries were higher, lowering yields to 1.89% from Tuesday’s 1.90%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices leaped $2.66 to $55.95 U.S.
Gold prices gained $10.20 to $1,202.80 U.S.
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