Stocks began Thursday on the right foot, helped by strength in financial stocks, while U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's new aggressive strategy to support the U.S. economy further bolstered sentiment.
The TSX doggedly gained 25.69 points, to kick off Thursday at 16,815.66.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.05 cents to 76.15 cents U.S.
Credit Suisse raised the rating on National Bank of Canada to neutral from underperform. National shares took on 63 cents to begin the day at $71.63.
Credit Suisse raises the target price Royal Bank of Canada to $104.00 from $103.00. Shares in Canada’s largest bank climbed 59 cents, to $101.99.
RBC cut the target price Knight Therapeutics to $8.00 from $9.50. Knight saw some rust in its armour, losing four cents to $6.28.
In the economic docket, Statistics Canada reported that the number of employees receiving pay or benefits from their employer, measured in the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours, rose by 666,500, or 4.9%, in June.
The agency goes on to say the numbers follows three consecutive months of declines -- March (-0.9 million), April (-1.9 million) and May (-0.5 million) -- and brought the total payroll employment change since February to a decrease of 2.7 million (-15.7%).
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 2.35 points to 732.22.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower, with financials growing 0.8%, while consumer discretionary and real-estate each better by 0.6%.
Gold weighed most heavily on the five laggards, with materials and energy each down 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Thursday after the Federal Reserve unveiled a new framework that could keep interest rates lower for a longer period of time.
The Dow Jones Industrials opened 220.45 points higher at 28,552.37. Those gains erased the 30-stock average’s losses for 2020.
The S&P 500 continued its record-breaking binge, gaining 2.87 points to Wednesday’s all-time peak at 3,481.60.
The NASDAQ Composite erased 44.99 points from Wednesday’s all-time record close to 11,620.07.
Bank stocks rose broadly. Citigroup gained 0.9%. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo were all up more than 1%. Treasury yields were also higher.
Shares of Abbott Laboratories jumped 9.7% after the company won authorization for a $5 rapid coronavirus test.
Investors also pored through fresh economic data to gauge the health of the economy. The U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday the number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits for the first time totaled one million last week, in line with expectations. It marked the second consecutive week that weekly jobless claims tallied more than one million.
Meanwhile, second-quarter Gross Domestic Product was revised to a 31.7% decline, versus a 32.5% drop estimated. The initial reading on July 30 showed a 32.9% fall in economic activity. While the latest reading is slightly better, it still marks the largest quarterly plunge on record.
In a speech, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank formally agreed to a policy of "average inflation targeting." In other words, the central bank will let inflation run "moderately" above its 2% goal for "some time."
The central bank has for years tried to keep inflation at 2%, a rate of price increase that policymakers consider both manageable and indicative of a healthy economy. But ever since the financial crisis, inflation in the U.S. has more often than not lagged the Fed’s target.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury lost strength, picking up yields to 0.71% from Wednesday’s 0.69%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices shed 43 cents to $42.96 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dropped $8.90 to $1,943.60 U.S. an ounce.
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