Toronto stocks revved up higher on Thursday afternoon and erased losses from the previous session. Commodities led a rally for resource stocks.
Shortly before the closing bell, the S&P/TSX composite index had climbed 241.47 points, or 2.2%, to 11,046.80.
Mining stocks have rallied, as HudBay picked up 13.7% to $14.60, while First Quantum jumped 7.3% to $75.60 and Inmet added 9.3% to $61.09.
Teck Resources rose 5.3% to $32.35 after the company's net earnings for the third quarter increased to $609 million, or $1.06 per share, from $424 million, or $0.95 per share, in the same period last year.
Lundin Mining Corp. added 2.3% to $4.40, despite announcing its third-quarter net income was $3.7 million U.S. or $0.01 U.S. per share compared with a loss of $199.0 million U.S. or $0.51 U.S. per share in the prior year period.
Richmont Mines was ahead 0.7% to $3.04 after the company reported third-quarter net earnings were $183,000 or $0.01 per share versus a loss of $894,000 or $0.04 per share in the last year.
Materials stocks and gold stocks added strength as the precious metal turned higher on the Comex. Iamgold climbed 8.8% to $14.34 and New Gold gained 7.1% to $4.06.
Barrick Gold added 6.4% to $39.42 after the company reported its adjusted third quarter net income was $473 million U.S. or $0.54 U.S. per share, compared to $404 million U.S. or $0.46 U.S. per share in the year ago quarter.
Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. was downgraded to "neutral" from "outperform" at Credit Suisse, which lowered AEM's price target to $68 from $80. Shares were 7.9% to $60.89.
Among other stocks moving on analyst ratings, Sierra Wireless added 4.2% to $10.42 after the stock was upgraded to "hold" from "sell" at Morgan Joseph.
Sun Life Financial gained 4.3% to $30.07 after the stock was upgraded to "market perform" from "underperform" at BMO Capital Markets.
Imax surged 9% to $11.50 after being upgraded to "market perform" from "underperform" at BMO Capital Markets.
Royal Bank of Canada announced that the Toronto Stock Exchange has approved its normal course issuer bid to purchase, for cancellation, up to 20 million of its common shares. The price of those shares rose 3.8% to $55.38.
In other corporate news, MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates was up 7% to $37.57 after the company reported third-quarter net earnings of $29 million or $0.70 per share compared with $242,000 or $0.01 per share in the year-ago period.
TransAlta Corp. dropped 1.6% to $20.22 after the company announced it reached a deal to sell 18.65 million common shares. The purchase price of $20.10 per common share would result in gross proceeds of approximately $375 million.
On the economic front, the Industrial Product Price Index fell 0.5% and the Raw Materials Price Index dropped 1.1% in September compared to August, according to Statistics Canada.
The Canadian dollar regained 1.18 cents to 93.68 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but one of the 14 TSX subgroups spent the whole day in the green. Metals and mining remained the leading group, charging ahead 6.7%, followed by global base metals, advancing 5.4% and materials, up 4.2%.
Only utilities missed out on the revelry, losing 1.4%.
The TSX Venture Exchange was up 47.01 points to 1,310.42, while the Nasdaq Canada index picked up 15.01 points to 658.35.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks rallied Thursday in a broad-based advance as a strong report on economic growth in the third quarter reassured investors that the recovery is on track.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained a few shades shy of 200 points, or 2.1%, to end the day at 9,962.58, its biggest one-day hike since July 15. The S&P 500 index added 23.47 points to 1,066.10. The Nasdaq composite index gained 37.94 points to 2,097.55.
Gains were broad based, with 28 of 30 Dow issues rising, led by Boeing, Chevron, Caterpillar, JPMorgan Chase, 3M, Travelers, Wal-Mart Stores and Procter & Gamble, which reported a better-than-expected profit.
The Dow and S&P ended three of the last four sessions lower, and the Nasdaq declined in all four, as investors turned cautious after a seven-month stock rally. Early enthusiasm about better-than-expected third-quarter profit gave way to questions about the strength of the economy, causing investors to pull back.
The S&P 500 lost 5% between the rally peak on Oct. 19 and Wednesday's close. Both the better-than-expected GDP report and the preceding sharp, short selloff gave stocks a boost Thursday.
Exxon Mobil said quarterly earnings plunged 68% in the quarter due to lower oil and natural gas prices. The number-one U.S. oil company reported weaker quarterly revenue as well. Both earnings and revenue missed estimates. Shares of the Dow component fell 0.5%.
Dow component Procter & Gamble reported weaker quarterly earnings and revenue that topped estimates. The consumer products maker also boosted the low end of its fiscal 2010 earnings forecast. Shares gained 4%.
With 302 companies, or 60% of the S&P 500 having already reported results, profits are on track to have fallen 17.9% from a year ago, according to the latest results from Thomson Reuters.
Economically speaking, Thursday's GDP report showed a third-quarter annual gain of 3.5%.
GDP was expected to have grown at a 3.2% annualized rate in the third quarter after shrinking at a 0.7% annualized rate in the second quarter.
While a bounce seems impressive, it wouldn't necessarily signal a robust recovery for the economy.
The government also released its weekly figures on initial jobless claims.
For the week ended Oct. 24, jobless claims totaled 530,000, down 1,000 from the prior week's unrevised 531,000.
Treasury prices lost ground, raising the yields for the benchmark 10-year note to 3.49% from Wednesday’s 3.40%. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil surged $2.41 to $80.01 U.S.
Gold prices increased $17 at $1,047 U.S. an ounce.
