Canada's main stock index rose at open on Friday, on course for its best quarterly performance since June 2009, with BlackBerry shares leading gains after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly profit.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index peeled back 20.47 points to open the quarter’s last session at 16,135.02.
As of Thursday’s close, the index had gained 1,833 points, or roughly 4.9%, on the year so far.
The Canadian dollar docked 0.16 cents at 74.39 cents U.S.
BlackBerry reported a fourth-quarter profit compared with a year-ago loss, benefiting from a 71% rise in its licensing and IP revenue as it filed for more patents for its technologies.
The company once known as Research In Motion surged $1.32, or 11.1%, to $13.23.
Canaccord Genuity cut the rating on Cronos Group to sell from hold. Cronos slid 76 cents, or 3%, to $24.55.
Desjardins raised the rating on Stars Group to buy from hold. Stars dipped a penny to $23.39.
Eight Capital raised the target price on Abacus Health Products to $22 from $15.00. Abacus picked up 65 cents, or 3.8%, to $17.60.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said on Thursday it will eliminate one shift at its Windsor, Ontario, assembly plant where it builds minivans, resulting in the loss of 1,500 jobs.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported the economy 0.3% in January, gross domestic product fully offsetting the declines in November and December 2018.
The rise was widespread as 18 of 20 industrial sectors were up.
Also, the agency’s industrial product price index rose 0.3% in February, mainly due to higher prices for energy and petroleum products.
Its raw materials price index increased 4.6%, primarily due to higher prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange regained 2.25 points to 624.92
Eight of the 12 Toronto subgroups were lower, with health-care and consumer staples each subsiding 0.7%, and communications, down 0.5%.
The four gainers were co-led by gold and energy, each picking 0.6%, while materials were 0.4% to the good.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Friday amid renewed optimism on the progress of trade talks between Washington and Beijing as Wall Street concluded a stellar quarterly performance.
The Dow Jones Industrials popped 123.36 points to 25,840.82, as Intel and Caterpillar outperformed.
The S&P 500 increased 12.18 points to 2,827.65, led by the energy and tech sectors.
The NASDAQ Composite gained 48.22 points to 7,717.38
Friday's gains added to the strong performance from the quarter. The S&P 500 was up 12.3% for the period, on pace for its biggest quarterly gain since the third quarter of 2009. The broad index was also on track for its best first quarter since 1998.
The Dow is up 10.3% this quarter through Thursday's close — its best start to a year since 2013 — while the NASDAQ is on pace for its biggest quarterly gain since the first quarter of 2012.
Bank stocks also rose broadly. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America all rose around 1%. Wells Fargo also gained 0.5% after the company announced CEO Tim Sloan was retiring from his post.
U.S. officials said China had made proposals on a range of issues that go further than it has before — including on forced technology transfer. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also said on Friday he had a "productive working dinner" with Chinese trade officials the previous night in Beijing, as both sides restart negotiations with the hope of bringing an end to their protracted trade dispute.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell at Friday’s open, raising yields to 2.43% from Thursday’s 2.39%.
Oil prices gained 87 cents to $60.17 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $7.10 to $1,302.40 U.S. an ounce.
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