Equities in Canada’s largest centre were up on Wednesday, led by railway and pipeline stocks in a broad-based but relatively shallow recovery from Tuesday's slip.
The S&P/TSX composite index progressed 101.66 points to greet noon at 13,382.05
The Canadian dollar eked down 0.14 cents at 74.93 cents U.S.
The most influential gainer on the index was Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd, which rose 5.5% to $194.88 after the company made public a proposal to buy Norfolk Southern that it said could help it save $1.8 billion.
Its rival, Canadian National Railway Co advanced 1.7% to $78.32.
Teck Resources Ltd gained 3.4% to $6.44 after the largest producer of steel-making coal in North America said it would cut its workforce by about 9%.
The energy group climbed, helped by gains among pipeline companies. Enbridge Inc advanced 1.4% to $50.30 and TransCanada Corp gained 1.5% to $43.11.
Suncor Energy, the country's largest oil and gas producer, declined 3.2% to $37.34 after it said 2016 capital spending will increase and production will slip.
Canadian Oil Sands Ltd, which Suncor has offered to buy, declined 2.4% to $9.21.
No major economic events were due out today.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange sagged 0.98 points to 518.32.
All but two of the 13 TSX subgroups moved higher, with industrials charging up 2.5%, health-care soaring 1.7%, and consumer staples better by 1.6%.
The lone laggards were in energy, wilting 1.1%, and gold, down 0.3%
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities traded higher on Wednesday as investors looked ahead to the release of the Federal Reserve's October meeting minutes.
The Dow Jones industrial average shot higher 134.22 points to pause for lunch at 17,623.72, with Apple and Goldman Sachs contributing most of the gains.
The S&P 500 added 15.96 points to 2,066.40, with health-care leading eight sectors higher and utilities and telecommunications lagging.
The NASDAQ index strengthened 43.03 points to 5,029.04
Apple's stock rose about 2.5% after Goldman released a note saying the company's shares will rise 43% in the next 12 months.
The Fed minutes are due at 2 p.m. ET and experts say they should not contain too many surprises
In corporate news, Lowe's reported better-than expected earnings per share and revenue, as same-store sales rose more 4.6%, also above expectations.
ConAgra Foods announced it plans on splitting into two publicly traded companies, on dealing with ConAgra's food service business, and the other with consumer food brands.
Citrix Systems said it will cut about 1,000 jobs and it will also spin off its GoTo software business into a separate public company.
Fairchild Semiconductor agreed to be bought by rival ON Semiconductor for $20 U.S. a share, or $2.4 billion.
On the data front, U.S. housing starts for October fell 11%, while building permits rose 4.1%. Single-family building permits rose 2.4% to their highest level since December 2007.
Last week, oil prices took a sharp turn lower following the release of U.S. inventories data. On Wednesday, the Energy Department said weekly inventories rose 252,000.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries hesitated, lifting yields to 2.28%, from Tuesday’s 2.27%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices eked up but two cents a barrel to $40.69 U.S.
Gold prices dipped $2.08 to $1,068 U.S. an ounce.
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