Canada’s largest stock index hit a one-month high at open on Thursday, aided by energy and mining shares, while Barrick Gold gained on a rise in third-quarter gold production.
The TSX Composite resumed its climb 121.9 points to begin Thursday at 20,740.37
The Canadian dollar climbed 0.41 cents to 80.80 cents U.S.
Barrick, for its part, opened the day up 16 cents to $24.09.
Shopify is teaming up with top cloud companies including Microsoft and Oracle to help merchants streamline their business operations. Shopify shares galloped $21.20, or 1.2%, to $1,761.87.
Thomson Reuters is launching a $100-million venture capital fund to invest in early-stage companies that serve professional audiences in the legal, tax and accounting, and news media business. Thomson shares added 75 cents to $144.75.
Canaccord Genuity raised the target price on Aritzia to $50.00 from $43.00. Aritzia jumped $5/88, or 14.5%, to $46.42.
CIBC raises target price on Granite REIT to $105.00 from $92.00. Granite units deducted four cents to $95.21.
RBC raised the rating on Pipestone Energy to outperform from sector perform. Pipestone shares leaped 20 cents, or 7.4%, to $2.90.
On the economic schedule, Statistics Canada reported manufacturing sales rose 0.5% to $60.3 billion in August on higher sales of petroleum and coal, chemicals and primary metals.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 6.38 points to 924.97.
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups gained ground, most notably, energy, gushing 1.8%, while consumer discretionary and health-care concerns gathered 1.4% each.
Only real-estate languished, and 0.1% at that.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rose Thursday after better-than-expected earnings reports from Bank of America and other major companies.
The Dow Jones Industrials leaped 385.58 points, or 1.1%, to 34,763.39.
The S&P 500 gained 53.43 points, or 1.2%, to 4,417.23.
The NASDAQ Composite jumped 197.09 points, or 1.4%, to 14,768.72.
Third-quarter earnings season rolled on Thursday with several big banks and Dow members reporting financial results before the bell.
Eight members of the S&P 500 reported earnings Thursday morning and all eight beat earnings-per-share expectations from Wall Street.
Bank of America saw its shares rise in the premarket after beating earnings expectations. Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Citigroup shares both ticked lower despite earnings beats.
Dow constituent UnitedHealth also gained after the companies’ quarterly results topped estimates and was the top performer on the blue-chip average.
Walgreens Boots Alliance shares ticked down even after the drugstore chain beat expectations. The company announced it would become majority owner of VillageMD with a $5.2-billion investment.
A lower-than-anticipated number of weekly jobless claims added to the positive market sentiment. Initial unemployment insurance claims last week totaled 293,000 – the first time the tally fell below the 300,000 level during the pandemic-era.
September’s producer price index was lighter than expected, also helping sentiment. Wholesale prices rose 0.5% from the month prior versus the 0.6% Dow Jones estimate.
Prices for 10-year Treasurys gained, lowering yields to 1.53% from Wednesday’s 1.54%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regrouped 28 cents to $80.72 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices added $2.40 to $1,797.10 U.S. an ounce.
