Equities in Canada’s largest market rebounded on Tuesday, reversing earlier losses, amid advances by materials and energy producers.
The S&P/TSX composite index hiked 150.76 points, or 1.2%, to close Wednesday at 12,593.02.
The Canadian dollar popped 1.51 cents to 72.66 cents U.S.
Canadian Natural Resources and Goldcorp surged as commodity companies led a recovery in Canadian equities. RONA Inc. shares doubled after a friendly takeover deal from U.S. rival Lowe’s Cos. Equities slumped earlier amid a drop in shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and financial companies.
Natural Resources stock jumped $2.19, or 7.9%, to $29.94, while Goldcorp brightened $1.30, or 8.2%, to $17.12.
Raw-material companies rallied as the price of gold climbed for a fourth day to a three-month high. Yamana Gold Inc. rallied 26 cents, or 10.2%, to $2.80, while Alamos Gold Inc. added 21 cents, or 4.7%, to $4.68. Energy producers rallied with the price of crude as the falling dollar countered data showing a steep gain in U.S. inventories.
RONA shares surged $11.53, or 98%, to $23.30 to an eight-year high, after the home-improvement retailer agreed to sell itself to rival Lowe’s for $3.2 billion in cash. Lowe’s will pay $24 per share, more than double Tuesday’s closing price of $11.77.
Indigo Books & Music Inc. jumped $2.25, or 17.9%, the most in four years, to $14.85, after third-quarter earnings and revenue climbed.
Valeant, briefly the largest company in Canada by market capitalization last year, gained $1.35, or 1.1%, to $129.75, to erase an earlier decline of as much as 5.5% after the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released two memos late Feb. 2 detailing internal corporate documents from Valeant and Turing Pharmaceuticals on drug prices.
The memos were in preparation for a hearing on skyrocketing prescription prices Thursday.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange leaped 5.21 points, or 1.1%, to close Wednesday at 496.27
Nine of the 13 TSX subgroups were to the good, with metals and mining stocks surging 7.1%, gold better by 5.6%, and energy 4.6% stronger.
The four laggards were weighed mostly by information technology, down 0.7%, health-care, down 0.6%, and consumer discretionaries, off 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with the Dow and S&P completing a massive comeback spurred by a surge in oil.
The Dow Jones industrial average charged ahead 183.12 points, or 1.1%, to close Wednesday at 16,336.66, with ExxonMobil leading advancers and McDonald's the greatest laggard.
The Dow opened 100 points higher, but fell over 150 points amid the weak economic data and the rise in crude inventories. In afternoon trading, the blue-chips index recovered to trade at session highs
The S&P 500 moved ahead 9.57 points to 1,912.60, falling more than 1% at its session lows, before turning positive in afternoon trading as the financial sector pared earlier losses.
Energy led six sectors higher and consumer discretionary proved the greatest laggard.
The NASDAQ index was still negative 12.71 points at the close to 4,504.24, after falling about 2% at its lows.
Investors also digested a slew of corporate earnings reports from companies like, General Motors, Merck, Yahoo and Comcast, among others.
Economically speaking, the Institute for Supply Management non-manufacturing index for January came in at 53.5, below the expected 55.1. It is also the lowest reading since December 2013.
ADP reported that private U.S. payrolls jumped 205,000 last month, above a consensus estimate of 195,000.
West Texas Intermediate gained about 8% higher in choppy trade after the Energy Information Administration said U.S. inventories rose by 7.8 million barrels last week. Crude prices briefly erased gains following the data release, but surged on a weaker dollar.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury fell back, raising yields to 1.88% from Tuesday’s 1.86%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $2.40 a barrel to $32.28 U.S.
Gold prices grew $12.20 to $1,141.21 U.S. an ounce.
