A powerful buying spree on North American stock markets is continuing for a third day, yielding big triple-digit gains in Toronto and New York, powered by more strong advances in financial and energy stocks.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index jumped 302.24 points to 8,313.26 for a gain of almost 10% in the last three days.
The turnaround in sentiment in the banking sector followed a report Tuesday that American financial giant Citigroup was profitable in the first two months of the year. Energy sector gains followed a boost in oil prices which have moved past the $45 U.S. a barrel level.
Financials are up as all of the big six banks are in the green. National Bank has added 4.2%, CIBC is up 4.1% and Royal Bank is showing a 4% gain.
Mining stocks are up, as Fronteer Development Group has gained 4.4% after the stock was upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform by RBC Capital Markets.
Healthcare stocks were up, as MDS has gained 7.7%. The company announced adjusted quarterly income of $7 million U.S. or $0.06 U.S. per share for the quarter from $8 million U.S. or $0.07 U.S. per share a year ago.
Energy stocks have jumped as crude oil has turned higher on the NYMEX. Savanna has jumped 10%, Baytex Energy Trust has added 9.2%, Vermillion Energy Trust has gained 7.1% and Canadian Natural Resources is up 5.4% and Suncor has gained 3.5%.
Petrobank Energy and Resources has added 6.1% after the company said its fourth-quarter net income fell 30% to $28.08 million from $40.15 million last year.
In other corporate news, Nortel Networks Corp. has plunged 10% amid a report in the Wall Street Journal that the company is in talks to sell its two main business units to competitors, an indication that the company could break itself apart rather then emerge from bankruptcy.
Transcontinental rose 3.3% after the company reported a net loss of $6.4 million or $0.08 per share, compared to net income of $34.1 million or $0.41 per share in the prior year quarter.
On the earnings front, IMAX Corp. has recovered most of its losses and is down 0.7%. The stock fell early after the company reported fourth-quarter net loss of $9.04 million U.S. or $0.21 U.S. per share, compared to a net loss of $10.15 million U.S. or $0.25 U.S. per share last year.
Xceed Mortgage Corp. is up 15.8% after it announced first-quarter net income increased to $3.34 million or $0.12 per share from $1.52 million or $0.05 per share in the same period last year.
Eveready has surged 21.2% after the company reported fourth-quarter net loss of $84.4 million or $4.66 per share, compared to net income of $2.75 million or $0.15 per share last year.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.40 cents Thursday to close at 78.22 cents U.S.
BAYSTREET
All of the 13 TSX sub-groups gained ground, led by financials, ahead 6.1%, energy, up 5.7% and metals and mining stocks, leaping 5.2%.
The TSX Venture Exchange advancing 19.68 points to 843.58, while the Nasdaq Canada index gained 11.05 points to 415.82
ON WALLSTREET
New York's Dow Jones industrial average moved ahead 239.66 points to 7,170.06, rising about 9% over three days.
The S&P 500 index chugged ahead 29.38 points to 750.74 while the Nasdaq composite index gained 54.46 to 1,426.10
Standard & Poor's downgraded GE and GE Capital's long-term credit ratings to AA+ from AAA, with a "stable" outlook. But Wall Street had been speculating that one of the major ratings agencies might issue a downgrade, and the stock had already slumped in anticipation of an announcement.
GE shares rallied 13% Thursday.
General Motors said it won't have to take $2 billion U.S. in additional federal loans this month because its cost-cutting efforts have improved its cash position.
Biotech Gilead Sciences said it will buy drugmaker CV Therapeutics for $1.4 billion U.S.. CV shares jumped 30%, while Gilead shares were little changed.
Pfizer said that a late-stage clinical trial of its cancer drug Sutent has been stopped early after the drug produced a significant benefit in patients with a rare form of cancer. Shares of the Dow component jumped 7.5%.
Economically speaking, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that retail sales edged down 0.1% last month, much less severe than the 0.5% drop that economists had expected.
Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.7%.
The U.S. government also revised January's performance to show a 1.8% rise, the biggest increase in three years and stronger than the 1% gain that was originally reported.
Also, the U.S. Labor Department reported that first-time requests for unemployment insurance increased to 654,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised figure of 645,000, above analysts' expectations.
The number of people receiving benefits for more than a week increased by 193,000 to 5.3 million, the most on record dating back to 1967. That's the sixth time in the past seven weeks that the jobless claims rolls have set a new record.
Also in the mix: Bernard Madoff was sent to jail to await sentencing after pleading guilty to 11 charges in relation to one of the biggest swindles in Wall Street history.
Treasury prices gained, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.87% from 3% Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
U.S. light crude oil for April delivery settled up $4.70 to $45.27 U.S. a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a gain of over 11%.
COMEX gold for April delivery rose $13.30 to settle at $924 U.S. an ounce.
