Canada's main stock index rose on Thursday as better corporate earnings helped the market recover from the biggest one-day decline in three years on Wednesday.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index came off its highs of the morning, but remained positive 30.22 points at by noon hour on Thursday to 14,939.35
The Canadian dollar shed 0.14 cents to 76.52 cents U.S.
Shopify jumped $15.52, or 9.7%, to $174.99, after reporting a surprise quarterly profit as more subscribers and merchants signed up to use its platform.
Shaw Communications moved 30 cents, or 1.2%, higher, to $24.75, after telecom services provider's quarterly profit topped analysts' estimates as it added more customers to its wireless offerings.
Oil and gas producer Husky Energy dropped 17 cents to $18.58, despite a better-than-expected quarterly profit, which was boosted by higher crude oil prices.
The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Crescent Point Energy, which jumped 87 cents, or 15%, to $6.63, after results
Goldcorp slumped $1.82, or 13.4%, the most on the TSX, to $11.78after the gold producer posted a bigger-than-expected loss in third quarter.
The second biggest decliner was Celestica, down $2.17, or 15%, to $12.29, after the electronics company missed quarterly earnings estimate.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $1,006 in August, up 0.6% from July. Compared with August 2017, earnings rose 2.9%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 3.57 points to 645.39
All but three of the 12 subgroups were higher midday, with health-care haler by 2%, information technology improving 1.9%, and energy ahead 1.4%
The three laggards were gold, dulling in price 2.7%, materials, off 1.3%, and utilities, off 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks jumped on Thursday as Wall Street tried to rebound from a tumble in the previous session that sent two of the major indexes down for 2018.
The Dow Jones Industrials leaped 281.2 points, or 1.1%, to 24,864.62, as Microsoft outperformed.
The S&P 500 acquired 37.98 points, or 1.4%, to 2,694.08, as communication services and tech both rose more than 2.5%.
The NASDAQ regained 161.18 points, or 2.3%, to 7,269.58
On Wednesday, the Dow plunged 608.01 points, erasing all of its gains for the year. The S&P 500 dropped 3.1% and also turned negative for the year. The NASDAQ fell 4.4%, entering correction territory.
These losses added to the indexes' steep decline for the month. Through Wednesday's close, the Dow tumbled 7.1%, and S&P 500 was off 8.9% for October. The NASDAQ, meanwhile, had lost 11.7%.
Microsoft reported earnings and revenue for the previous quarter that easily topped analyst expectations. The Dow component rose more than 5.8% on the news.
Tesla, meanwhile, posted a surprise profit, sending its shares up by more than 8%. Twitter also surged more than 16% on better-than-expected results. Not all quarterly reports were good, however. AMD shares tanked more than 14% after the company issued weak revenue guidance for the fourth quarter.
Thus far, the corporate earnings season is off to a good start. S&P 500 earnings are up 24.8% so far, with 82% of the companies that have reported beating estimates,
The data also show that earnings growth forecasts for the first two quarters are holding up nicely. As of Thursday morning, S&P 500 earnings were expected to grow by 8.4% in the first quarter of 2019, up slightly from the growth reported on Wednesday. Expected earnings growth for next year's second quarter also increased to 6.5% from 6.4% on Wednesday.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury lost ground, raising yields to 3.13% from Wednesday’s 3.11%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices improved 41 cents at $67.23 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices picked up a dollar an ounce to $1,232.10
Related Stories
