Equities in Canada’s largest market gained further strength on Wednesday as a bump higher in commodity prices boosted mining stocks and investors braced for an expected U.S. interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 116.93 points to pause for lunch Wednesday at 13,036.50
The Canadian dollar faded 0.39 cents to 72.41 cents U.S.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International added to its surge on Tuesday, up 4.6% to $156.61 after projecting 30% profit growth for 2016.
The country's two main railway stocks gained, pushing the industrials group up 1%.
Canadian Pacific Railway rose 1.5% to $174.25 and Canadian National Railway advanced 0.2% to $74.98.
Miner Barrick Gold added 5.6% to $10.32 and rival Goldcorp advanced 3.7% to $15.8.
Copper prices advanced 0.9% to $4,607 U.S. a tonne.
The most influential weights on Wednesday included Canadian Natural Resources, which fell 2.7% to $28.87, and Encana, which lost 3.4% to $7.31.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that foreigners invested $22.1 billion in Canadian instruments in October, while Canadian investors added $3.2 billion of foreign securities to their holdings, mostly non-U.S. foreign bonds.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange increased 4.07 points to 499.82.
All but one of the 13 TSX subgroups were higher, with gold surging 3.5%, health-care better by 2.4%, and materials soaring 2.2%.
The lone laggard was energy, sinking 1.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks stateside tried to hold slight gains Wednesday, attempting to shake off pressure from low oil prices, ahead of the widely expected first U.S. Federal Reserve rate hike in nearly a decade.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost some momentum from its early surge, but remained positive 19.74 points by noon to 17,544.65, with Goldman Sachs one of the top gainers.
The S&P 500 still was ahead 8.02 points to 2,051.43. Energy briefly fell more than 1.5% as the greatest laggard in the S&P 500
The NASDAQ index gained 10.71 points to 5,006.07.
DuPont, Apple, Chevron and Exxon Mobil were the greatest weights on the Dow in midday trade. In addition to some negative headlines around Apple products Wednesday, UBS lowered its target price on the stock and Credit Suisse lowered estimates.
In economic news, housing starts rose 10.5% in November, while building permits rose 11%.
U.S. industrial production saw its sharpest decline in more than three and a half years in November as utilities dropped sharply, a sign of weakness that could moderate fourth-quarter growth.
The Fed said Industrial output slipped 0.6% after a downwardly-revised 0.4% dip in October, marking the third straight month of declines. Capacity utilization was 77%
December Flash Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index fell to from November to 51.3, the weakest improvement in manufacturing sector business conditions in three years
The Federal Open Market Committee is due to release its post-meeting statement at 2 p.m. ET. Fed Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to follow with a press conference at 2:30 p.m.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury faded, raising yields to 2.3% from Tuesday’s 2.27%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gave back $1.63 a barrel to $35.72 U.S.
Gold prices hiked $14.48 to $1,075.70 U.S. an ounce.
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