Mining and energy stocks pushed the Toronto stock market higher Thursday as a weak U.S. dollar helped push up prices for oil and metals.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended a short week up 74.54 points from Wednesday to 13,972.02
The Canadian dollar faded 0.12 cents to 104.86 cents U.S.
The base metals sector gained as Teck Resources rose $1.16 to $53.84 while First Quantum climbed $1.40 to $130.00.
The gold sector gained ground as Barrick Gold was ahead 76 cents to $53.07 while Goldcorp Inc. was up 68 cents to $53.13.
Suncor Inc. gained 66 cents to $43.17 while Imperial Oil was up 79 cents to $50.56.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. said its net income dropped to $33.7 million in the period, a significant decline from $101 million in the same period a year earlier.
On a per-share basis, earnings were 20 cents, coming in two cents above analyst expectations, according to Thomson Reuters. President and CEO Fred Green says Canadian Pacific was faced with extremely difficult winter weather that caused outages and constrained its capacity and service and its shares gave up early gains to dip 53 cents to $59.73.
Shares in manufacturer Celestica Inc. rose 48 cents to $10.53 as the firm reported that first-quarter profits rose to $30 million U.S. or 14 cents U.S. a share, up from $28.5 million U.S. a year ago. The Toronto-based global manufacturer also said revenue increased to $1.8 billion, in line with analyst expectations and above the $1.52 billion posted a year earlier.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada said this morning that retail sales in Canada improved 0.4% in February to $37.3 billion, offsetting most of the decline in January, mostly due to hikes gasoline stations, where sales increased 1.3%
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange improved 18.75 points to 2,281.64 while the Nasdaq Canada index eased back 3.20 points to 755.99
In Toronto, all but four of the 14 subgroups gained ground. Global base metals prospered 1.5%, while metals and mining issues and materials stocks forged ahead 0.9% each.
Among the laggards, consumer staples were off 0.5%, health-care and utilities slid 0.4% each.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks advanced for a third straight session Thursday, with the Dow inching higher to fresh multi-year highs, following a slew of strong earnings.
But disappointing readings on regional manufacturing and the labor market kept a lid on the gains, reminding investors that the economy is still fragile
The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day up 52.45 points to 12,506, with shares of Travelers, IBM and AT&T's rising about 2%.
Earlier in the session, the blue-chip index had reached 12,491.19 -- its highest level since June 2008.
The S&P 500 picked up 7.02 points to 1,337.38, with shares of Biogen Idec and SLM jumping about 15%. Biogen delivered a strong quarterly profit, while SLM, the student loan lender known as Sallie Mae, reinstated its quarterly dividend after four years and authorized a $300-million U.S. share repurchase programs.
The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 17.65 points to 2,820.16. Biogen Idec, F5 Networks, Qualcomm and Apple were among the biggest winners on the tech-heavy index after posting healthy quarterly earnings.
Shares of General Electric dropped more than 2% Thursday. The Dow component's stock was higher at the start of trading after the company delivered solid first-quarter earnings and raised its quarterly dividend.
GE has been under pressure lately, facing criticism about its 2010 taxes and role in the nuclear crisis following Japan's March 11 earthquake. GE designed all six nuclear reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Shares of Yum Brands climbed more than 5% after the fast food operator posted higher first-quarter earnings on rapid growth in China.
Morgan Stanley's stock spiked 1.5% after the bank beat estimates with its first-quarter profit.
The gains were tempered by reports that showed a sharp slowdown in manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region in April and lower-than-expected jobless claims.
On the economic slate, the U.S. Labor Department announced that jobless claims totaled 403,000 last week, which was stronger than the forecast, but had little impact on stock futures.
Economists expected a drop to 390,000 from the prior week's revised figure of 416,000.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve said its manufacturing activity index dove to 18.5 from 43.4 the prior month. Economists were expecting the figure to drop to 33.
Even with the dampening effect of those economic reports, analysts say earnings will continue to be the main driver to push stocks higher.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury was unchanged at Wednesday’s 3.40%.
Oil for February delivery gained 77 cents to $112.22 U.S. a barrel.
Gold futures for June delivery settled at a record $1,503.80 U.S. an ounce, after rising to an intraday trading record of $1,509.60 U.S.
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