Equities in Canada’s largest market was subdued at market open on Wednesday, with gains in technology stocks offset by losses in industrials, while shares of Teck Resources zoomed on withdrawing its separation proposal.
The TSX was positive 22.93 points to commence the midweek session at 20,462.80.
The Canadian dollar gathered 0.02 cents to 73.42 cents U.S.
Teck Resources, the target of an unsolicited takeover bid by Glencore, narrowly missed first-quarter estimates on Wednesday, hit by lower prices, weak copper and zinc sales and higher expenses. Teck shares rocketed $2.47, or 4.2%, to $61.43.
Cenovus Energy reported a fall in its first-quarter profit, hurt by lower oil prices. Shares in Cenovus shed a dime to $23.08.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange nicked ahead 1.75 points to 605.53.
All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups were up in the first hour, with information technology taking on 0.9%, while consumer discretionary and materials stocks each gaining 0.8%.
Industrials doffed 1.2%, while utilities lost 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
The Nasdaq Composite advanced Wednesday after Microsoft earnings came in better than Wall Street expected.
The Dow Jones Industrials dipped 64.12 points to 33,466.71.
The S&P 500 edged higher 1.71 points to 4,072.12.
The technology-based index recovered 112.46 points, or 1%, to 11,911.62.
Microsoft added more than 7% after beating Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines in its latest quarter. The company also posted a big jump in revenue from its Intelligent Cloud business segment. Amazon rose 1.5% as some market participants grew hopeful that the e-commerce giant’s cloud business could also show strong revenue growth when reporting earnings Thursday.
Alphabet shares were up around 2%. The Google parent also posted better-than-anticipated earnings, but grew just 3% year over year.
First Republic Bank said late Monday that its deposits dropped 40% to $104.5 billion in the first quarter. This reignited concerns about the broader banking sector and pressured the major averages Tuesday. The stock was slid more than 20% after falling almost 50% on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, Boeing and Chipotle shares rose more than 3% and 10%, respectively, on the back of their earnings reports. Investors will keep focus on tech with Meta Platforms slated to report after the market closes Wednesday. Mattel and eBay are also expected to report after the bell.
Demand for long-lasting goods like appliances and computers was higher than economists expected in March, according to data released Wednesday morning, in a sign that the economy is showing resilience. This data point comes ahead of the latest GDP update slated for Thursday and the big Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index — the Federal Reserve’s favored inflation gauge — on Friday.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury were static, keeping yields at Tuesday’s 3.39%.
Oil prices fell $1.29 to $75.78 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices grabbed five dollars to $2,009.50 U.S. an ounce.
