Stocks in Toronto rose on Thursday as the rebound in crude oil helped support energy stocks, while financials rose after two of the country's main banks reported higher earnings.
The S&P/TSX composite index crept up 17.01 points to open Thursday’s session at 13,480.83, after a tumble Wednesday of more than 170 points.
The Canadian dollar faded 0.09 cents to 74.86 cents U.S.
Banks reported today, and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce trumpeted a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by growth in its retail banking and capital markets segments, and the bank raised its quarterly dividend.
Commerce shares dipped $1.22, or 1.2%, to $99.58.
Toronto-Dominion Bank reported a higher quarterly profit as it benefited from growth in its domestic retail and capital markets divisions. TD shares lost 44 cents to $54.61.
Enbridge raised its quarterly dividend by 14% to 53 cents per share. Enbridge shares added 27 cents to $47.51.
Sears Canada said same-store sales rose 0.4% in the third quarter - the first rise in two years - helped by higher sales of major appliances, furniture and mattresses. Sears shares dropped two cents to $10.74.
CIBC raised the target price on Alimentation Couche-Tard to $76.00 from $74.00. Shares in the convenience store chain lowered 42 cents to $62.58.
RBC raised the price target on Evertz Technologies to $22.00 from $21.00. Evertz shares rocketed 61 cents, or 3.7%, to $17.20.
BofA Merrill cut the target price on National Bank of Canada to $55.00 from $58.00. National shares docked 41 cents to $43.50.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 0.18 points to 514.71.
Seven of the 13 TSX subgroups were lower, as consumer staples stepped back 0.6%, industrials weakened 0.5%, and financials trundled lower 0.4%.
The half-dozen gainers were led by gold, up a solid 2.2%, materials, better by 1.5%, and the metals and mining groups, up 0.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks turned lower Thursday after a positive open as investors surveyed higher oil prices and speeches from central bank policymakers.
The Dow Jones industrial average backtracked 77.5 points to open Thursday at 17,652.18, with Wal-Mart and Chevron leading advancers and Merck the greatest decliner.
The S&P 500 slumped 4.5 points to 2,075.01. Telecommunications and health-care led all 10 S&P 500 sectors lower.
The NASDAQ index erased 4.33 points to 5,118.89, while Apple traded a titch higher.
In economic news, initial jobless claims rose to 269,000. ISM non-manufacturing came in at 55.9 versus October's 59.1 read, Dow Jones reported. U.S. factory orders rose 1.5% in October, beating expectations of 1.3%.
Key for the week is November's non-farm payrolls report, due Friday before the opening bell. The data is the final jobs report out before the Fed's December meeting.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen remained confident in the U.S. economic outlook in a testimony before Congress on Thursday.
She was expected to reiterate why the Fed believes it could raise interest rates for the first time in nine years as soon as this month.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the European Central Bank would extended to at least March 2017 its massive 60 billion euro ($63.5 billion U.S.) a month bond-buying scheme. Hopes of an increase in amount of purchases were disappointed.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury wilted, spiking yields to 2.26% from Wednesday’s 2.18%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices hiked 62 cents a barrel to $40.56 U.S.
Gold prices improved $2.65 to $1,056.35 U.S. an ounce.
