The Toronto stock market charged ahead about 200 points Friday afternoon, with major support coming from energy and mining stocks, before settling back off those highs.
New York markets registered slight gains following mixed economic data releases.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index moved ahead 171.67 points to 9,496.50, extending a spring rally that started March 10 and has sent the main index up almost 25%.
But the rally is starting to look stretched. Some experts say the rally will run out of gas as the weather gets hotter.
In Toronto, beverage maker Cott Corp. popped up $1.70 or 70 per cent to $4.10 after it broke a series of quarterly losses as cost-cutting and refocusing overcame flat revenue. Cott's January-March net income of $19.9 million U.S. reversed a year-earlier loss of $21.3 million.
The TSX energy sector gained as EnCana Corp. added $2.32 to $57.01 and Suncor Inc. gained $2.34 to $32.37.
The Toronto base-metal sector ran ahead as Teck Resources gained $1.46 to $13.99 and FNX Mining ran up $1.04 to $6.32.
Cameco Corp. the world's biggest uranium miner, said its first-quarter net profit fell to $82 million from $133 million. Cameco, which also has interests in nuclear power and gold, said revenue rose to $615 million from $593 million. Its shares advanced $1.75 to $29.15.
Domtar Corp. gained a penny to $2.16 after a drop in pulp prices led to a loss of $45 million U.S. in the first quarter. Sales fell to $1.3 billion from $1.7 billion.
TransCanada Corp. delivered first-quarter earnings of $334 million, down from $449 million in the first three months of last year. Excluding one-time items, TransCanada said its profit rose to $343 million from $326 million. Its shares climbed 47 cents to $30.25.
Shares in Shaw Communications, Canada's second-biggest cable TV operator, were ahead five cents to $18.55 after CTVglobemedia accepted its offer to buy three money-losing TV stations for $1 each.
The Canadian dollar continued its climb, gaining 0.52 cents to 84.33 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 13 TSX subgroups, nine were higher, metals and mining up 7.3%. Energy stocks were next at 3.7%, followed by industrials, ahead 2.4%.
The four groups that lost ground were weighed down by real-estate, off 0.5%, gold was down 0.4% and staples backtracked 0.2%.
The TSX Venture Exchange picked up 1.19 points to end the week at 1,010.17 while the Nasdaq Canada Index added 23.90 points to 684.36
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrials average added 44.29 points to close at 8,212.41
The S&P 500 index gained 4.71 points to 877.52, while the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.90 points to 1,719.20.
Stocks are coming off a strong April in which bets that the economy is close to stabilizing fueled a big run up. For the month, the Nasdaq gained 12.3%, the S&P 500 gained 9.4% and the Dow Jones gained 7.3%.
The financial sector was flat after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it will release stress test results for the 19 largest U.S. banks on Thursday, three days later than originally scheduled because of disagreements between the banks and regulators.
The New York market mulled over earnings from MasterCard, which at $367.3 million U.S. were above Wall Street expectations. But first-quarter revenue fell short of expectations and the company warned that its top line will continue to come under pressure and MasterCard shares lost $13.54 to $169.90 U.S.
Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company, said its first-quarter profit fell 64% to $1.84 billion U.S. on lower oil and natural gas prices. Shares of the No. 2 oil services firm were little changed.
It was a busy economic calendar Friday.
The factory sector contracted again in April, but the pace of decline slowed, according to the Institute for Supply Management index released this morning. The ISM index rose to 40.1% from 36.3% in March. It's the highest since September, showing that the pace of contraction is slowing. It was better than the 39.1% expected by economists.
Readings under 50 indicate most firms surveyed by ISM said business was getting worse. The ISM has been below 50 for 15 straight months.
The new orders index rose to 47.2% from 41.2% in March. The production index rose to 40.4% from 36.4% in March. The employment index 34.4% from 28.1% in March. Auto sales for April come out Friday, a day after Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
In other news, the release of the results of the "stress tests" of the nation's largest banks is expected late Thursday, a government source told CNNMoney. Results were initially expected to be released Monday.
Chrysler was forced to file for bankruptcy after lenders refused a U.S. Treasury Department demand to reduce the amount of money the troubled automaker owed them.
But a deal has been reached to combine the company with Fiat in order to allow Chrysler to stay in business.
Chrysler is privately owned. Shares of rivals General Motors and Ford Motor slipped Friday after rallying Thursday.
The major companies were reporting April sales figures throughout the day.
Ford Motor reported a 31.6% drop in sales versus a year ago, a steeper decline than expected. But the pace of the decline was smaller than a month ago.
GM said sales fell 33.2% from a year ago, beating forecasts. But sales were an improvement after the 45% decline in March.
Toyota Motor reported a worse-than-expected April sales decline of 41.9%. Toyota's March sales fell 30.9% versus a year earlier.
Treasury prices slipped, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.18% from 3.14% Thursday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
U.S. light crude oil for June delivery rose $2.08 to $53.20 U.S. a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
COMEX gold for June delivery fell $3 to $888.20 U.S. an ounce
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