Canada's main stock index rose on Wednesday, after two sessions of declines, as positive earnings and a rebound in energy stocks buoyed sentiment with focus on a crucial round of trade talks between the United States and China.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 39.32 points to move into noon hour at 16,397.07
The Canadian dollar gained 0.08 to 74.31 cents
The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Element Fleet Management Corp, which jumped $1.12, or 13,4%, to $9.47 after reporting a better-than-expected quarterly profit. Kinross Gold Corp rose 12 cents, or 3%, to $4.18, after results.
Shares of Thomson Reuters rose $2.59, or 3.2%, to $84.79 after reporting a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit, boosted by demand for information it sells to legal professionals, and reaffirmed its forecast for the rest of this year and 2020.
Home Capital Group Inc fell 90 cents, or 4.8%, the most on the TSX, to $17.88, after results.
The second biggest decliner was Canfor Corp, down 37 cents, or 3.1%, to $11.65.
Economically speaking, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported that seasonally-adjusted housing starts rose to 235,460 units in April of 2019 from a downwardly-revised 191,981 units in March and beating market expectations of 196,400 units. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 24% in April to 220,387 units
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 0.85 points to break for lunch at 600.08
The 12 Toronto subgroups were evenly divided between gainers and losers, as energy gushed 1.9%, health-care was haler 1%, and industrials took on 0.6%
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by gold, down 1.2%, materials, sliding 0.7%, and utilities, falling 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks tried to rebound from a deep selloff this week as investors still remain on edge about an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China.
The Dow Jones Industrials picked up steam and gained 68.23 points to 26,033.32, following a 470-point loss in the previous session
The S&P 500 docked 0.82 points to 2,883.23
The NASDAQ Composite index remained negative 6.01 points to 7,957.75
The Dow has lost nearly 540 points this week amid the trade dispute, while the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are down more than 2% after both hitting all-time highs last week.
Ride-hailing company Lyft’s stock slid 7% Wednesday after the company reported a heavy loss for its first quarterly earnings report as a public company. Some Wall Street analysts still believe the results were “a good first step’ to profitability.”
Investors are also monitoring corporate earnings. Disney and Fox will report after the closing bell.
So far, 88% of the S&P 500 companies have reported their first-quarter earnings. Earnings are beating by 6.7%, with 73% of companies exceeding their bottom-line estimates, according to Credit Suisse.
Major averages hit their highs of the day after White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders affirmed President Donald Trump’s comments earlier that China is coming this week to make a deal. But they soon pared the gains after China said it will take “necessary” countermeasures if U.S. raises tariffs Friday.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry said Wednesday that Beijing will retaliate if U.S. tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods is hiked to 25% from 10%.
Companies that hinge on a trade agreement between the world’s two largest economies were mixed on Wednesday. Caterpillar and Intel were both down slightly, while Apple climbed more than 0.6%.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury lost early morning strength, raising yields back to Tuesday’s 2.46%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regained 71 cents to $62.11 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices skidded $3.70 to $1,281.90 U.S. an ounce.
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