Canada's main stock index picked up new territory on Friday amid choppy trading as rate-sensitive technology stocks gained, and as investors were relieved that the domestic retail sales data declined less than expected.
The TSX regained 80.63 points to venture into noon hour EST at 20,422.07. In spite of the gains and drops of the past week, the index is better by 61 points, or 0.3%.
The Canadian dollar forged ahead 0.29 cents at 74.56 cents U.S.
Technology stocks were up, with Shopify gaining $1.51, or 2.9%, to $52.80,
Hut 8 Mining galloped 15 cents, or 6.5%, to $2.37.
Hudbay Minerals's shares fell 26 cents, or 3.2%, to $7.83, after protesters in Peru entered the Canada-based miner's copper unit in the southern region of Cusco and damaged key machinery and vehicles.
Tim Horton's owner Restaurant Brands International gained $1.33, or 1.5%, to $89.55. after BMO Capital Markets upgraded the stock to
"outperform".
First Majestic Silver fell 31 cents, or 2.8%, to $10.69, after Cormark Securities and BMO Capital Markets trimmed their PT on the miners after it reported a 14% fall in fourth-quarter production.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada says retail trade for November decreased 0.1% to $61.8 billion in November. Sales decreased in six of 11 subsectors and were led by lower sales at food and beverage stores (-1.6%) and building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (-3.8%).
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eked up 1.47 points to 617.38.
All but three of the 12 subgroups showed strength in the first hour, with health-care and information technology each up 0.9%, while materials took on 0.3%.
The three laggards proved to be gold, behind 0.5%, while consumer staples and utilities each retreated 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
The NASDAQ jumped on Friday, with help from Netflix and Alphabet, as investors tried to hang onto the January rally and earnings reports continued to trickle in.
The Dow Jones Industrials found some traction and moved up 123.41 points to 33,167.97.
The S&P 500 recovered 32.61 points to 3,931.40.
The tech-driven index regained 147.88 points, or 1.4%, to 11,000.15.
Netflix gained 7% after posting more subscribers than expected even though its quarterly earnings missed analysts’ estimates. Alphabet rose 5% after the company announced it will lay off 12,000 employees.
Ralph Lauren shares gained nearly 2% following an upgrade to overweight from equal weight rating by analysts at Barclays.
For the week, all three indexes are on track to close lower. The Dow is down more than 3% and on track for its worst week since September.
The S&P 500 is down 1.5% and could notch its worst weekly performance since December. The NASDAQ is down by less than 1% and on pace to break a two-week win streak.
Sales of previously owned homes fell for the 11th consecutive month in December, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Existing homes fell to an annualized pace of 4.02 million units in December, down 1.5% month over month and 34% year over year.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury sank, raising yields to 3.50% from Thursday’s 3.40%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 35 cents to $80.68 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices edged up four dollars to $1,927.90 U.S. an ounce.
