Canada's main stock index rose on Thursday, buoyed by strength in shares of precious metal miners with sentiment also lifted by gains on Wall Street following signs of cooling inflation.
The TSX remained positive 48.64 points to reach noon Thursday at 20,502.96.
The Canadian dollar jumped 0.52 cents to 74.91 cents U.S.
Teck Resources gained 0.9% after the copper miner rejected a sweetened bid from Swiss commodities giant Glencore Plc.
Shares of Hudbay Minerals fell 1.9% after the miner said it would buy peer Copper Mountain Mining in a $439-million all-share deal to boost its copper
portfolio.
Barrick Gold reported its first-quarter gold production fell 15% sequentially. However, the miner's shares were up 1.9%, in line with gains for the broader sector.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange stayed above breakeven two points to 637.88.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups remained in the green midday, led by gold, ahead 1.7%, materials, better by 1.3%, and health-care, soaring 1.2%.
The five laggards were weighed most by consumer staples, which fell 0.6%, industrials, off 0.5%, and utilities, down 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks jumped Thursday, with Big Tech leading, as traders cheered another report pointing to cooling U.S. inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 184.76 points to pause Thursday for noon at 33,831.26.
The S&P 500 recovered 31.25 points to 4,123.20.
The NASDAQ leaped 177.25 points, or 1.5%, to 12,106.58.
Tech stocks outperformed, with both the communication services and information technology sectors among the notable gainers in the S&P 500. Megacap tech stocks advanced, with shares of Amazon, Google-parent Alphabet and Meta each up more than 2%. Tesla shares also rose 2%.
The March producer prices index, a measure of prices paid by companies and often a leading indicator of consumer inflation, declined by 0.5% month over month versus expectations for prices to be flat. Excluding food and energy, the core wholesale prices reading shed 0.1% month over month, much better than the 0.2% increase expected by economists polled by Dow Jones.
Wednesday’s release of March’s consumer price index report showed headline inflation pressures eased last month. The CPI advanced just 0.1% month over month in March. Consumer prices grew 5% on an annual basis, the smallest increase in nearly two years.
Traders’ sentiment turned in the afternoon following the release of minutes from the March Federal Open Market Committee meeting. In particular, the Fed expects the recent banking crisis to cause a mild recession later this year.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury fell by noon, raising yields to 3.42% from Wednesday’s 3.40%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices backpedaled 68 cents to $82.58 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices hung onto gains of $27.20 to $2,052.10 U.S. an ounce.
