Stocks in Canada’s largest market kept up the momentum as Friday morning became afternoon, thanks largely to strength in health-care and financial issues.
The TSX marched 71.08 points higher to move into noon hour Friday at 19,102.72.
The Canadian dollar inched higher 0.06 cents to 80/03 cents U.S.
Turquoise Hill Resources came off its highs of the morning and lost nine cents to $21.22, and OrganiGram Holdings, which rose 14 cents to $3.28.
Winpak fell 90 cents, or 2%, to $43.95, while Sunopta gave back 30 cents, or 1.7%, to $16.94.
Factory sales in this country most likely rose 3.5% in March from February, Statistics Canada said in a flash estimate on Friday.
The increase is mostly attributed to higher sales in transportation equipment and the petroleum and coal product industries.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 3.76 points at lunch hour Friday to 924.76.
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups stayed positive by noon, led by health-care, up 1.7%, while financials and consumer discretionary plays each soared 0.6%.
The three laggards were in gold, down 0.2%, while communications and consumer staples each backpedaled 0.1%.
Material stocks were unchanged by noon EDT.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rebounded on Friday as Wall Street reassessed concerns arising from news that the White House could seek a hike to the capital gains tax.
The Dow Jones Industrials jumped 169.56 to 33,985.46, amid a jump in Goldman Sachs and Apple shares.
The S&P 500 zoomed 38.48 points to 4,173.46.
The NASDAQ Composite resurfaced 175.11 points, or 1.3%, to 13,993.52.
The three major averages are still on track for modest losses for the week. The Dow is down 0.6%, and the S&P 500 has lost 0.3% this week, while the NASDAQ is off by 0.5%.
Wall Street came off a turbulent session for equities after multiple news outlets reported Thursday afternoon that President Joe Biden is slated to propose much higher capital gains taxes for the rich.
Bloomberg News reported that Biden is planning a capital gains tax hike to as high as 43.4% for wealthy Americans.
The proposal would hike the capital gains rate to 39.6% for those earning $1 million or more, up from 20% currently, according to Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters and the New York Times later also reported similar stories.
Intel shares dropped more than 5% after it issued second-quarter earnings guidance below analysts’ hopes. American Express fell over 4% after the credit card company reported quarterly revenue that was slightly short of forecasts.
Snap shares, meanwhile, jumped 9% after it said it saw accelerating revenue growth and strong user numbers during the first quarter. Snap broke even on the bottom line while posting revenue of $770 million.
Corporations have for the most part managed to beat Wall Street’s forecasts thus far into earnings season. Still, strong first-quarter results have been met with a more tepid response from investors, who have not, to date, snapped up shares of companies with some of the best results.
Bitcoin plunged overnight, perhaps in part because of concerns about higher capital gains taxes, with the cryptocurrency last down about 8%, according to CoinMetrics. Other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum were also getting hit. So far, the selloff there was not spilling over into other risk assets like equities.
Prices for 10-Year Treasurys weakened, raising yields to 1.56% from Thursday’s 1.54%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices climbed 42 cents to $61.85 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dropped $6.40 to $1,775.60 U.S. an ounce.
