Canada's main stock index was flat on Monday as losses in utilities offset gains in energy shares ahead of interest rate decisions from major central banks and the domestic inflation data later in the week.
The TSX Composite squeezed ahead 0.13 points to open Monday at 21,849.28.
The Canadian dollar was up only 0.02 cents to 73.83 cents U.S.
In matters economic, Statistics Canada said its Industrial Product Price Index rose 0.7% on a monthly basis in February and fell 1.7% relative to February 2023. The Raw Materials Price Index increased 2.1% month over month in February 2024 and decreased 4.7% year over year.
Moreover, the Canadian Real Estate Association declared Monday Canadian home prices as measured by the seasonally adjusted Aggregate Composite MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) were flat on a month-over-month basis in February, ending a streak of five declines that began last fall.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faltered 2.76 points to 548.14.
The 12 subgroups were evenly split in early trade Monday, with health-care zooming 2.4%, real-estate ahead 0.6%, and industrials better by 0.3%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by communications, down 0.7%, while utilities and consumer staples each lost 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose Monday, led by gains in Nvidia, as Wall Street awaited a key artificial intelligence conference and looked ahead to monetary policy guidance from the Federal Reserve later this week.
The Dow Jones Industrials surged 133 points to begin the week at 38,847.77.
The S&P 500 index captured 54.77 points, or 1.1%. to 5,171.85.
The NASDAQ popped 265.11 points, or 1.7%, to 16,238.28.
Nvidia shares were up 3% ahead of the company’s GTC Conference — where the chipmaker is expected to showcase its latest inroads in artificial intelligence. Analysts hiked up their price targets as the conference began, with Truist’s William Stein predicting a 34% upside.
Shares of Alphabet rose 7% in their best day in over a year, after Bloomberg News reported that Apple was in talks with Google to include the company’s Gemini AI in iPhones.
Super Micro Computer slid 2% on the company’s first trading day as part of the S&P 500. It had earlier climbed 6%.
These moves come after two weeks of tech-led losses for both the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has ended the past three weeks with losses.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury fell, raising yields to 4.33% from Friday’s 4.31%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gathered 47 cents to $81.51 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices grabbed a dollar to $2,162.50.
