Equity markets in Toronto had some spark on Monday as losses in energy shares were countered by a rally in consumer stocks led by Restaurant Brands International, while investors kept a wary eye on the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak.
The TSX Composite Index pulled ahead 69.78 points to greet noon Monday to 17,725.27
The Canadian dollar lost 0.08 cents to 75.04 cents U.S.
Restaurant Brands rallied 3% after its quarterly results beat analysts' estimates on Monday, taking the consumer discretionary index up more than 1%. Tim Hortons parent triumphed 95 cents, or 1.1%, to $85.67.
The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Transalta Corp, which jumped 31 cents, or 3%, to $10.60, after an RBC upgrade to "outperform". Silvercorp Metals followed with a rise of three cents to $8.08.
Aurora Cannabis fell 18 cents, or 8%, the most on the TSX, to $2.08, after brokerage CIBC cut its price target for the stocks. The second biggest decliner was Ivanhoe Mines Ltd, down 7.5 cents, or 2.1%, to $3.425.
On the economic scene, January housing starts were fairly flat at 210,915 units in January, compared to 212,212 units in December, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, while building permits increased 7.4% to $8.7 billion in December.
Increases were reported in five provinces, led by Ontario and Quebec.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 1.96 points into noon hour at 572.39.
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were stronger, with gold brighter by 2%, materials better by 1.2%, and information technology picked up 0.8%.
The three laggards were weighed most by health-care, down 1.8%, energy, off 0.6%, and financials down 0.01%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Monday, rebounding from a decline earlier in the day, led by solid gains in tech shares such as Amazon.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 90.48 points to 29,192.99.
The S&P 500 added 13.11 points at 3,340.82.
The NASDAQ hiked 64.15 points to 9,584.67.
Amazon rose 1.7% to a record high, breaking above $2,100 per share for the first time. Netflix and Alphabet also traded more than 1% higher while Facebook climbed 0.4%.
Apple shares fell as much as 1.9% amid concerns the outbreak will hurt production of the tech giant’s best-selling product, the iPhone. Foxconn, one of Apple’s biggest suppliers, got approval to resume production at a key manufacturing plant but only 10% of its workforce has returned.
In other corporate news, Xerox raised its offer to buy HP Inc to $24 per share, or about $34 billion. That’s up from a $22 per share offer made by Xerox in November. Xerox shares gained 2% along with HP.
Meanwhile, L Brands is closing in on a sale of its Victoria’s Secret brand to Sycamore Partners. L Brands shares jumped more than 3%.
As of Sunday night, China said a total of 40,171 cases of coronavirus had been confirmed and 908 people had died, while 14 Americans have tested positive for the virus aboard a cruise ship quarantined in Japan. The death toll from the coronavirus has also overtaken that of the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said China would speed up development of drugs aimed at treating pneumonia-like viruses. Xi also said China will win the fight against the coronavirus. He noted, however, the situation remains dire.
Prices for the 10-Year U.S. Treasury moved higher, lowering yields to 1.55% from Thursday’s 1.58%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices backed off 54 cents to $49.78 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices hiked $4.10 to $1,577.50 U.S. an ounce.
