Canada's stock exchanges resumed trading on Monday after an outage that halted trading for several hours on Friday afternoon, with the country's main stock index edging up to a nearly six-week high as financials and industrials rose.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced 17.35 points to start the week at 15,686.28
The Canadian dollar eked up 0.2 cents to 77.88 cents U.S.
Air Canada reported a bigger quarterly loss as higher fuel costs offset a rise in traffic.
The carrier’s stock gained 31 cents, or 1.2%, to $25.32.
Fund managers and traders have voiced the opinion that the outage Friday could dent the credibility of operator TMX Group and encourage investors to explore alternative trading channels. CIBC raised the target price on TMX to $88.00 from $87.00
TMX shares collapsed $2.31, or 2.9%, to $77.07.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada said its Industrial Product Price Index increased 0.8% in March, mainly due to higher prices for energy and petroleum products and pulp and paper products.
The Raw Materials Price Index rose 2.1%, primarily due to higher prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 1.03 points in the early going Monday to 784.79
Eight of 12 TSX subgroups were positive, with health-care shooting 2%, information technology up 1%, and consumer discretionary stocks nosing up 0.3%.
The four laggards were weighed most by gold, down 1.4%, materials, down 0.8%, and utilities, dropping 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks kicked off the week trading higher on Monday, as a spur of deal making news and strong quarterly earnings lifted investor sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 107.55 points to 24,418.74, with McDonald's as the best-performing stock in the index.
The S&P 500 gained 7.86 points to 2,677.77, with consumer discretionary leading nine sectors higher.
The NASDAQ added 34.77 points to 7,154.57,
Logistics company Prologis is acquiring DCT Industrial Trust for $8.4 billion in an all-stock deal. Marriott Vacations, the hotel chain's timeshare business, is also buying rival ILG for $4.7 billion.
T-Mobile said Sunday it was buying Sprint for $26 billion. Meanwhile, Marathon Petroleum is buying oil refiner Andeavor for $23 billion.
In earnings, Dow component McDonald's rose 4.1% after reporting better-than-expected earnings and revenue. Botox-maker Allergan also posted a better-than-expected profit for the previous quarter.
The earnings season continues to be strong. Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported through Monday morning, 79.3% have reported stronger-than-forecast earnings.
In data, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index posted last month its biggest year-over-year gain since February 2017.
The so-called core PCE — which strips out food and energy — jumped 1.9% through March. The core PCE is the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation.
Pending home sales for March were also due out this morning.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose, reducing yields to 2.95% from Friday’s 2.96%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped four cents a barrel to $68.06 U.S.
Gold prices plummeted $8.10 to $1,315.30 U.S. an ounce.
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