Canada's main index inched up on Tuesday, led by gains in energy and materials stocks, while investors remained cautious ahead of the Bank of Canada's interest rate decision and economic data in the United States due later in the week.
The TSX Composite added 46.37 points to move into Tuesday afternoon at 21,577.44.
The Canadian dollar squeezed higher 0.02 cents at 73.69 cents U.S.
Shares of Alamos Gold rose six cents to $17.47, and SSRM Mining rose 15 cents, or 2.6%, to $5.83.
Energy shares also gained, pulled up by Topaz Energy, up 91 cents, or 4.7%, to $21.31, and Advantage Energy, up 27 cents, or 2.6%, to $10.67, after their fourth-quarter results.
Among other stocks, shares of lithium producer Lithium Americas (Argentina) Corp fell 55 cents, or 7.5%, to $6.81, after Ganfeng Lithium said it planned to buy a stake of at least 14.8% in a subsidiary of the company.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange swooned 8.7 points, or 1.5%, to 566.64.
Eight of the 12 subgroups were positive midday, with energy surging 1.3%, gold better by 1.1%, and materials improving 0.6%.
The four laggards were weighed most by information technology, ticking lower 2.2%, health-care sliding 0.7%, and communications off 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks fell Tuesday, on track for another losing session as the technology sector struggled.
The Dow Jones Industrials plunged 329.45 points by noon hour Tuesday to 38,660.38.
The S&P 500 dropped 52.6 points to 5,078.55.
The NASDAQ sank 291.54 points, or 1.8%, to 15,915.97, as technology stocks felt the brunt of the market’s drop.
Apple slipped almost 3% on the back of a report from Counterpoint Research that found iPhone sales plunged in China in the first six weeks of 2024.
Several other mega-cap technology stocks including Tesla, Netflix and Microsoft shed more than 2%. The S&P 500's information technology sector led the broad index down with a drop of more than 2%.
AMD fell more than 1% after Bloomberg News reported the chipmaker hit a regulatory snag that will prevent it from selling an artificial intelligence chip to China. GitLab tumbled more than 19% after the software company posted a weak forecast for the full year.
Beyond technology, Target jumped more than 11% after holiday-quarter earnings came in stronger than Wall Street forecast. AeroVironment rallied more than 29% following a better-than-anticipated quarterly report and outlook from the defense company.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury bounced, lowering yields to 4.15% from Monday’s 4.22%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices reversed course and gained 27 cents to $79.01 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices surged $10.20 to $2,136.50.
