The Toronto stock market was higher Friday at the end of a positive week, with the TSX powered by earnings news and positive manufacturing data from China.
The S&P/TSX composite index shot higher 74.67 Friday to end the week at 13,399.42
The Canadian dollar fell 0.34 cents to 95.65 cents U.S.
CP was in focus Friday after its biggest shareholder sharply narrowed its position. Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management has sold about a third of its holdings in the railway.
CP, which reported a record quarterly profit on Wednesday, said the hedge fund has sold 5.96 million CP shares for about $140 U.S. a share, bringing the total divestment so far to seven million shares. On Friday morning, CP shares added $2.09 to $150.04, which is more than triple their level when Pershing Square began building up its stake in the railway.
The beaten-down utilities sector advanced. Canadian Utilities added 85 cents to $38.08 and Emera climbed 44 cents to $31.42.
Telecoms also suffered from those high U.S. yields and on Friday the sector rolled ahead, with Telus rising 63 cents to $36.84.
The TSX energy sector climbed with Suncor Energy gaining 59 cents to $37.66.
The TSX gold sector was ahead while Iamgold gained 10 cents to $5.70.
The base metals component gave back strength after gaining Thursday in the wake of data showing stronger than expected expansion in the Chinese manufacturing sector as December copper inched up one cent to $3.27 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources was 27 cents lower to $30.27.
The tech sector was also negative with CGI Group down 30 cents to $35.59. A subsidiary, CGI Federal, was one of the main contractors for the U.S. government's troubled health-care insurance website and its shares have slid 8.5% since Oct. 16. A congressional committee was told this week that the government didn't allow enough time to test the system before it went online Oct. 1.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange ended 0.88 points in positive territory to 973.58
All but two of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher on the day, led by utilities, up 1.3%, while telecoms triumphed 1.2%, and gold gained 1%
The two laggards were information technology, down 0.2%, and health-care, off 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Several well-known tech stocks surged Friday after reporting better-than-expected third quarter results.
That helped push the S&P 500 to an all-time high Friday. The index ended the week up nearly 1%.
The Dow Jones Industrials improved 61.07 points to close Friday at 15,570.30
The S&P 500 index added 6.78 points to 1,758.85. The NASDAQ took on 14.40 points to 3,943.36.
The Dow and the NASDAQ also ended the week up about 1%. The NASDAQ is within striking distance of 4,000, a level it last hit in September 2000
Amazon posted a loss, but sales were much better than forecasts. Amazon's shares soared nearly 10%.
Microsoft easily topped estimates for sales and profits. Those results helped push its stock up nearly 6%.
Even Zynga, the troubled online video game company, surprised Wall Street by reporting losses that were slimmer than expected, sending shares up nearly 6%.
Other prominent tech companies, such as Yahoo and LinkedIn, fell.
UPS is confident that consumers will be shopping in force over the holidays. The shipping giant predicted a robust holiday season, which sent shares up more than 1%.
The company also reported quarterly income that exceeded forecasts. Earlier this week, UPS rival FedEx said it thought that Cyber Monday, the first Monday after Thanksgiving, will be its busiest day ever.
Twitter revealed late Thursday that it plans to raise upwards of $1.4 billion U.S. in its initial public offering, selling 70 million shares at between $17 and $20 U.S. per share. At the high end of that range, Twitter would be worth nearly $11 billion U.S.
Economically speaking, the U.S. Census Bureau revealed durable goods orders jumped 3.7% in September, versus 0.2% in August.
Investors have been pleased by earnings reports, but they also remained convinced that the U.S. Federal Reserve will delay winding back its massive bond-buying program. The Fed has a policy meeting next week and is widely expected to say it will continue buying $85 billion in bonds and mortgage-backed securities a month.
Moreover, the University of Michigan's October reading on consumer confidence fell far below expectations and was also below September's levels.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury inched up, lowering yields to 2.50% from Thursday’s 2.52%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 80 cents to $97.91 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices regained $1.30 to $1,352 U.S. an ounce.
