Equities in Toronto ended their slump most emphatically Thursday, with muscle being lent by tech and consumer staple stocks.
The TSX muscled up 125.92 points to conclude Thursday at 19,547.95.
The Canadian dollar sprang up 0.05 cents to 82.94 cents U.S.
The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Lightspeed POS, which jumped $10.42, or 15%, to $80.03.
Elsewhere in techs, Tecsys jumped $1.64, or 4%, to $42.31.
In consumer staples, North West Company piled on $1.07, or 3%, to $36.83, while SunOpta grabbed 46 cents, or 3%, to $15.68.
Canadian Pacific Railway rose $2.30, or 2.4%, to $97.35, after reiterating its commitment to buy Kansas City Southern and asked the U.S. railroad operator to reject rival Canadian National Railway's takeover offer.
ATA Automation climbed $1.76, or 6.1%, to $30.56.
Energy prove the only downer, with Crescent Point Energy down 15 cents, or 3.1%, to $4.74, and Enerplus 21 cents to the bad, or 2.8%, to $7.25.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada said new home prices increased 1.9% in April at the national level, with prices up in 22 of the 27 census metropolitan areas surveyed.
Moreover, a report from ADP showed Canada added 351,300 jobs in April despite a tightening of COVID-19 restrictions, led by gains in the leisure and hospitality, as well as the trade, transportation and utilities sectors.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange picked up 12.12 points, or 1.3%, to 948.73.
All but one of the 12 subgroups stayed afloat all afternoon, with information technology vaulting 3.1%, consumer staples sprinting 1.3%, and industrials up 0.9%.
Energy was the lone laggard, off 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, rebounding from three straight days of losses as technology shares staged a comeback, while the latest jobless claims totaling a fresh pandemic-era low also boosted sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrials came off its highs of the day, but gained 188.11 points to close Thursday at 34,084.15
The S&P 500 picked up 43.33 points, or 1.1%, to 4,159.12, with tech being the biggest gainer among 11 sectors.
The NASDAQ popped 236 points, or 1.8%, to 13,535.74, as Microsoft, Facebook and Alphabet all gained more than 1%. Netflix and Apple rallied more than 2% each.
Oatly shares soared nearly 19% during the company’s public market debut on the NASDAQ Thursday.
Despite Thursday’s comeback, the Dow is still down 0.9% on the week. The average lost about 1% last week as the market rally to highs stalls. The S&P 500 has fallen 0.4% this week, while the NASDAQ is on pace to eke out a small gain for the week.
Tesla, chip stocks and other speculative parts of the market, which took a big hit in the previous session, bounced back on Thursday amid a recovery in bitcoin prices.
On Thursday, the cryptocurrency was slightly higher at around $40,000, according to Coin Metrics. Coinbase shares were higher in early trading Thursday after Wedbush said to buy the crypto-exchange despite the volatility.
Investors cheered a better-than-expected jobless claims report on Thursday. The number of first-time claims for unemployment benefits for the week ended May 15 came in at 444,000, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday. Economist surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting 452,000 new claims.
On Wednesday, investors also digested the Federal Reserve’s minutes from April that hinted at considering tapering its asset purchase programs in upcoming meetings.
Prices for 10-Year Treasurys shot up, lowering yields to 1.63% from Wednesday’s 1.67%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices moved lower 28 cents to $63.08 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost $1.50 to $1,380 U.S. an ounce.
