Equity markets in Toronto advanced in morning trade on Friday along with gains for global stock markets after the Bank of Japan moved to negative interest rates.
The S&P/TSX composite index added 76.15 points to greet noon at 12,668.08. The index is on track for a weekly gain of 1.8%, after earlier this month hitting its lowest since August 2012.
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.25 cents to 71.05 cents U.S.
Fertilizer companies within the materials group fell after Potash Corp forecast its bleakest year in a decade and slashed its dividend, due to tanking fertilizer prices.
Agrium Inc fell 1.9% to $119.81, and Potash itself declined 0.3% to $52.59.
Methanex Corp fell 0.4% to $56.16 after analysts trimmed their target prices for the stock following quarterly results.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International rose 4.3% to $126.17, recovering some of its losses since U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton criticized exorbitant pricing for one of the company's drugs while on the campaign trail.
With consumer inflation just 0.1% in the year to December despite three years of aggressive money-printing, the BOJ's policy board decided in a narrow 5-4 vote to charge a 0.1%interest on a portion of current account deposits that financial institutions hold with the central bank.
On the economic beat, Canada’s Gross Domestic Product rose 0.3% in November, mostly as a result of increases in wholesale and retail trade, oil and gas extraction as well as manufacturing. GDP’s November gain follows a 0.5% decline in September and no growth in October.
Statistics Canada also said that its Industrial Product Price Index declined 0.2% in December, mainly as a result of lower prices for energy and petroleum products. The Raw Materials Price Index fell 5.0% in the same month, led by lower prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange moved up 3.12 points to 495.55
All but two of the 13 TSX subgroups were higher, as metals and mining climbed 4.1%, health-care gained 3.5%, and materials upped 2.6%
Energy faded 0.6%, while financials remained negative 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rose more than 1.5% Friday, the last trading day of January, after the Bank of Japan unexpectedly adopted a negative interest rate policy for the first time.
The Dow Jones industrial average skyrocketed 261.88 points, or 1.6%, to 16,331.42. Visa traded more than 5% higher to contribute the most to gains. 3M and Microsoft were also among the top gainers.
The S&P 500 pointed up 27.42 points, or 1.5%, to 1,920.78, to trade within 10% of its 52-week intraday high, out of correction territory on an intraday basis. Information technology led all 10 sectors higher.
The NASDAQ index bolted higher 67.28 points, or 1.5%, to 4,573.96, Apple held more than 1.5% higher.
Visa reported earnings one cent above estimates, although revenue missed slightly. The credit card issuer also affirmed its full-year earnings forecast, surprising some analysts who had expected a cut.
Microsoft beat on both the top and bottom line, helped by improvement in its cloud services business as well as cost-cutting.
Amazon.com posted quarterly profit substantially below expectations. Revenue was slightly below forecasts as well, and the shares came under immediate pressure despite the highest-ever quarterly profit ever posted by the online retail giant.
Facebook extended Thursday's stellar gains to hit a record intraday high.
Dow futures rose more than 100 points in pre-market trade as Microsoft climbed but Chevron declined after the firm unexpectedly posted a loss for the first time since 2002, hit by the slump in oil prices.
In economic news, the advance read on the fourth-quarter showed U.S.GDP increased at a 0.7% annual rate, in-line with expectations but down sharply from the 2% rate in the third quarter. The economy grew 2.4% in 2015 after a similar expansion in 2014.
The employment cost index for the fourth quarter showed a rise of 0.6%, unchanged from the prior quarter.
Consumer sentiment came in at 92.0 for January, down slightly from December.
Stocks extended gains after the Chicago PMI showed 55.6 in January after coming in at 42.9 in December. Consumer sentiment came in at 92.0 for January.
Overnight, the Bank of Japan announced a negative interest rate policy. Global equities climbed after the Bank of Japan's surprise announcement, with the Nikkei reversing mild losses to close up 2.8%. The Shanghai composite closed 3.1% higher. European stocks traded about 1% higher late in Friday’s session.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained, lowering yields to 1.92% from Thursday’s 1.98%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices sagged 12 cents a barrel to $33.10 U.S.
Gold prices picked up 66 cents to $1,115.99 U.S. an ounce.
