Equity markets in Toronto opened slightly higher on Wednesday after a slump in the previous session, with oil and gas stocks bouncing back in line with a recovery in the price of crude.
The S&P/TSX composite index moved up 45.73 points, to open Wednesday at 14,687.49, after being stung more than 200 points Tuesday.
The Canadian dollar demurred 0.12 cents to 78.70 cents U.S.
Quebecor Inc reported a 3.5% rise in quarterly adjusted income, helped by demand in its telecommunications and media businesses. Quebecor shares faded 30 cents to $33.43.
UBS AG has poached a U.S. team of some 15 oil and gas investment bankers from Bank of Montreal, significantly weakening the energy dealmaking capacity at “the First Canadian Bank”, whose shares eked ahead 14 cents nonetheless to $75.21.
RBC raised the target price of Alimentation Couche-Tard to $52.00 from $47.00. Couche-Tard shares gained 43 cents to $46.80.
Dundee cut the rating on Entrec Corp. to sell from buy. Entrec shares were unchanged at 48 cents.
CIBC cut the rating on Reservoir Minerals Inc. to sector perform from outperform. Reservoir moved up eight cents to $3.95.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange nicked lower 0.78 points to 668.72
The 14 Toronto subgroups were evenly divided, with information technology clicking higher 1%, energy stocks 0.9% more energetic, and consumer discretionaries better by 0.4%
The seven laggards were jointly led downward by metals and mining and their cousins among global base metals, each down 1%, while materials surrendered 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded mildly higher on Wednesday in an attempt to recover from Tuesday's selloff, as investors continued to monitor dollar gains and indications on the timing of a Fed interest rate hike.
The Dow Jones Industrials repaired 37.80 points to 17,700.74.
The S&P 500 reacquired 2.29 points to 2,046.45. The NASDAQ index strengthened 2.48 points to 4,862.28.
Skyworks Solutions will replace PetSmart in the S&P 500 after the close on Wednesday.
Lumber Liquidators, which was battered by a "60 Minutes" report on the safety of its flooring products, continues to trade in a volatile pattern, and was rising sharply in pre-market trading. The volatility has been driven by strong opinions—both positive and negative—on the future of the company.
Shake Shack was following up a 5% Tuesday gain with a similarly sized drop in pre-market trading, ahead of its quarterly earnings report after today's closing bell.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts will also post earnings.
Goldman Sachs added SanDisk to its "conviction buy" list, citing an attractive valuation and expanding gross margins, among other factors.
Among the many reports on the Federal Reserve's expected action, analysts eyed a Wednesday article by the Wall Street Journal that said the Fed would drop "patient" from its statement ahead of a rate hike as early as June.
The U.S. government's oil inventory data will be of particular interest, after the American Petroleum Institute reported the first weekly drop in crude supplies in two months on Tuesday. The Fed will also publish further stress test results for large U.S. banks, assessing their capital plans.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries were unchanged, keeping yields at Tuesday’s 2.13%. Treasury prices and yields tend to move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell seven cents to $48.22 U.S.
Gold prices faded four dollars to $1,156.10 U.S.
