Equities in Canada’s largest market edged higher on Thursday as gains for the health-care sector offset losses for railroad stocks.
The S&P/TSX Composite poked up 1.91 points to open Thursday at 15,082.82
The Canadian dollar sank 0.11 cents at 74.04 cents U.S.
Health-care issues led the parade, as the much-beleaguered Valeant Pharmaceuticals gained 39 cents, or 1.7%, to $23.24, and Canopy Growth Corporation triumphed $1.06, or 10.2%, to $11.50.
CIBC raised the target price on Teck Resources to $44.00 from $33.00, to reflect the persistence of strong met coal spot prices. Teck stock gathered 49 cents, or 1.4%, to $35.40.
Valener Inc is out with earnings today, expecting a Q4 loss of 11 cents per share. Valener shares picked up 41 cents, or 2.1%, to $20.37.
Gold stocks weighed things down a mite, as Barrick Gold slid two cents to $19.70, while Goldcorp dropped four cents to $17.37.
Among industrials, Air Canada shares were flat at $14.28, while Canadian Pacific Railways backpedaled 24 cents to $201.11.
Oil prices progressed six cents to $48.02 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices hesitated $4.30 at $1,185 U.S. an ounce.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $957.00 in September, down 0.1% from the previous month and up 0.4% from 12 months earlier.
Moreover, non-farm payroll employees worked an average of 32.7 hours per week in September, unchanged from the previous month and down from 33.0 hours in September 2015.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 1.97 points to 732.06
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher to begin trading, with health-care stocks on the mend 0.8%, utilities higher 0.3%, and real-estate better by 0.2%.
The four laggards were weighed by gold, down 0.2%, while industrials and consumer discretionaries each off 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Markets are closed for Thanksgiving, to re-open for half a day Friday.
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