Canada's main stock index rose on Thursday after U.S. and Canadian officials made progress in talks to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 44.5 points to get Thursday started at 16,182.07
The Canadian dollar faded 0.09 cents to 75.81 cents.
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Wednesday the two countries made progress in negotiations and officials would work together to flesh out areas for further discussion.
Creditors of Hudson's Bay Co have agreed to a merger of the Canadian retailer's German department store chain Kaufhof with rival Karstadt, owned by Austria's Signa Holding.
Bay shares gained 12 cents, or 1.2%, to $10.29.
Alimentation Couche-Tard reported a quarterly profit that topped analysts' estimates on Wednesday as the world's second-biggest convenience store operator benefited from higher fuel sales. Couche-Tard shares shot up $3.13, or 5%, to $66.28.
Canaccord Genuity cut the price target on Ecobalt Solutions to $0.90 from $1.80. Ecobalt shares lost four cents to 72 cents.
CIBC cut the target price on Semafo Inc. to $4.00 from $4.25. Semafo took on four cents, or 1.3%, to $3.09.
National Bank of Canada raised the rating on WSP Global to outperform from sector perform. WSP shares hiked $2.07, or 3%, to $70.42.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reports municipalities issued $8.2 billion worth of building permits in July, down 0.1% from June. The decrease was mainly attributable to lower construction intentions in British Columbia.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 3.06 points to 710.09
All but three of the 12 subgroups were positive out of the blocks, as consumer staples muscled up 1.7%, while materials popped 1.5%, and gold bettered itself by 1.4%.
The three laggards were health-care, down 3%, information technology, going backward 0.5%, and energy, losing 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks were little changed on Thursday as tech shares tried to rebound from a steep selloff. Gains were also kept in check as global trade fears lingered.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average strode forward but 24.73 points to 25,999.72
The S&P 500 eased 6.75 points to 2,881.85,
The NASDAQ slipped 48.96 points to 7,946.21
Netflix rose 2% after dropping more than 6% in the previous session, leading a sharp downturn in tech shares.
Aspen Group Inc. and Marvell Technology Group are among the firms reporting earnings Thursday.
Private companies added 163,000 jobs last month, according to ADP and Moody's Analytics. Economists polled by Reuters expected a gain of 190,000. The report comes ahead of the US. government's non-farm payrolls report, which is set for release Friday.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury were unchanged, keeping yields at Wednesday’s 2.9%.
Oil prices inched up eight cents to $68.80 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices added nine dollars to $1,210.30
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