The Toronto stock market gained marginal ground Wednesday after the Bank of Canada left its key interest rate unchanged, but warned of persistent low inflation.
The S&P/TSX composite index moved forward 36.43 points to close Wednesday at 13,988.20, back to within sight of the psychologically-important 14,000 mark.
The Canadian dollar tumbled 0.97 cents, to 90.20 cents U.S., following the bank rate decision.
March cooper fell 1.4 cents to $3.34 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources faded 63 cents to finish at $27.49
On the TSX, the energy sector rose as Imperial Oil climbed 31 cents to $46.63, while Suncor acquired 51 cents to $38.01
TransCanada Corp. shares gained 38 cents to $48.85 as it officially started shipping crude oil on the southern portion of its controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
Information technology stocks gained, with shares of BlackBerry rising 9.9%, or $1.08, to $11.82.
BlackBerry announced Tuesday that it is selling the majority of its commercial real estate holdings in Canada, but the struggling smartphone maker refused to say how much it expects to make from the deals.
The company once known as Research In Motion has been trying to change the course of its money-losing operations under the leadership of new CEO John Chen. BlackBerry shares are up about 50% from the start of the year.
In other corporate developments, Air Canada said its domestic pension plans had a small surplus as of Jan. 1, according to preliminary estimates -- contrasting with a $3.7-billion solvency deficit a year earlier. Shares of the airline were up 7.7%, or 69 cents, to $9.54.
On the Canadian economic calendar, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz announced the bank is leaving its overnight lending rate at 1%, where it’s been since September 2010.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange nosed ahead 0.48 points to 980.44.
Nine of the 14 Toronto subgroups finished in higher country today, led by information technology issues, up 2.1%, health-care, better by 0.8%, and energy, gushing 0.7%.
The five laggards were weighed by gold, 1.7% duller, metals and mining, slipping 1.4%, and materials, shedding 1.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Investors stayed cautious Wednesday following another mixed bag of earnings reports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average weakened 41.10 points to end the day at 16,373.34, as a disappointing outlook from IBM weighed on the blue-chip index. IBM shares declined more than 3%.
The S&P 500 index improved 1.06 points, however, to 1,844.86. The NASDAQ gained 17.24 points to 4,243.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has a 6% stake in IBM, making it Big Blue's largest shareholder.
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices tumbled after the company's guidance for the current quarter fell short of expectations. It's the latest bit of bad news for semiconductor stocks following last week's earnings from Intel and the news that Intel was planning to cut jobs this year.
Coach shares also fell after the luxury retailer's earnings and sales came in below expectations.
eBay and Netflix are on deck to report results after the closing bell. Overall, earnings are expected to be up 5.9% in the fourth quarter for the companies in the S&P 500, according to FactSet Research.
On the bright side, BlackBerry shares surged again after the smartphone maker said it was unloading the majority of its Canadian real estate assets. Shares have been rising as investors bet that new CEO John Chen will help put the company back on track.
Priceline shares continued to trade above $1,200 U.S. per share, after hitting the milestone for the first time Tuesday. Priceline has the highest stock price of any company in the S&P 500. Google is trailing it with a price of around $1,165 U.S.
Also on the tech front, Apple shares rose after Carl Icahn said he has increased his stake in the company by $500 million to total $3 billion U.S., reiterating that the investment is a "no-brainer."
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries were down, corresponding raising yields to 2.86% from Tuesday’s 2.83%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices strengthened $1.79 to $96.76 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices shed $3.50 to $1,240.40 U.S. an ounce.
