Equity markets in Toronto surpassed Monday’s all-time high on Tuesday, boosted by the energy group, which gained on the back of rising oil prices.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 65.61 points, on top of Monday’s all-time record close, to begin Tuesday’s trade at 16,517.95
The Canadian dollar slid 0.03 cents at 76.22 cents U.S.
Consumer staples were boosted by shares of Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc, which rose $4.29, or 7.5%, to $61.29 after beating analysts' quarterly profit estimate on Monday.
Another of the top percentage gainers on the TSX were shares of Precision Drilling, which rose 10 cents, or 2.1%, to $4.84.
First Capital fell 78 cents, or 3.7%, to $20.14, the most on the TSX, followed by Morneau Shepell's decline of 60 cents, or 2.2%, to $27.06
On the economic docket, the value of building permits issued by Canadian municipalities increased 4.7% to $8.2 billion in May. This followed a 4.7% drop in April, the only month this year where municipalities reported a total value below the $8-billion mark.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faded 0.65 points to 739.05
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher by noon, consumer staples surging 1.5%, energy better by 1.4% and information technology up 0.8%.
The five laggards were weighed the most by real-estate and industrials, each hesitating 0.2%, and materials, off 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks traded higher on Tuesday as the latest corporate earnings season got underway.
The Dow Jones Industrials leaped 153.24 points by noon at 24,929.83, as DowDuPont and Procter & Gamble outperformed.
The S&P 500 gained 8.94 points to 2,793.11, with energy rising 0.8%.
The NASDAQ hiked 67.81 points to 7,756.20
Earnings for the first calendar quarter rose 24% on a year-over-year basis. Wall Street is expecting similar results for calendar second quarter. Analysts expect S&P 500 second-quarter earnings to have grown by 20%
More than 20 companies in the S&P 500 have already released their quarterly results, including PepsiCo. The soft drink and snacks maker posted better-than-expected earnings, sending its shares higher by more than 4%. PepsiCo also said it expects “substantially higher” earnings growth for fiscal fourth quarter.
Pepsi is not the only company to have beaten expectations thus far. One analyst said in a note Tuesday that 86% of the companies that have already reported exceeded their quarterly earnings expectations, posting 24.1% year-over-year growth.
Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Delta Air Lines are all scheduled to report earnings later this week.
Tesla shares rose 1.8% after Bloomberg News reported the company is planning to build a massive plant in China. The report says the plant will have the capacity to build 500,000 vehicles per year.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury faded, raising yields to 2.87% from Monday 2.86%.
Oil prices dipped six cents to $73.79 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost $3.20 to $1,256.40 U.S. an ounce.
