Oil prices resumed a month-long rally on Wednesday, helping to lift world stock markets, while bond prices weakened ahead of this week’s European Central Bank meeting.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index moved higher 81.85 points to finish Wednesday’s session at 13,392.90, its ninth daily hike in the last 10.
The Canadian dollar bolted higher 0.9 cents to 75.48 cents U.S.
Among energy stocks, Canadian Natural Resources rose $1.30, or 3.9%, to $34.86, Baytex Energy Corp. surged 34 cents, or 7.6%, to $4.82, and Paramount Resources Ltd. gained 36 cents, or 4.3%, to $8.83.
Health-care stocks advanced behind a 4.5% rise by Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc., which chugged ahead $3.86 to $88.80.
The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 0.5%. The bank rate is correspondingly 0.75% and the deposit rate is 0.25%
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange moved lower 0.93 points to 569.62
All but two of the 13 TSX subgroups were positive on the day, with health-care ahead 2.5%, metals and mining up 1.7%, and energy better by 1.3%
The two laggards were consumer staples, off 0.6%, and gold, down 0.1%,
ON WALLSTREET
Equities in New York closed higher in low volume trade Wednesday, helped by a rise in oil prices, as investors awaited Thursday's European Central Bank decision on monetary policy.
The Dow Jones Industrial average finished positive 36.26 points to 17,000.36. Chevron and IBM contributed the most to gains on the Dow, while Goldman Sachs was the greatest contributor to declines.
The S&P 500 added 6.42 points to 1,985.68. Energy briefly traded more than 2% higher to lead S&P 500 advancers as higher oil prices continued to bring in both short covering and longer-term positioning
The NASDAQ index inched up 25.55 points to 4,674.38. Amazon briefly declined about 1% and Apple attempted gains.
In economic news, weekly mortgage application volume increased 0.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Wholesale inventories rose 0.3% in January, while sales declined 1.3%.
ECB President Mario Draghi is expected to announce more stimulative measures, with hopes of expansion of the asset purchase program and a possible further cut to the already negative deposit rate.
The U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan are due to hold meetings next week.
Wednesday also marks the seventh anniversary of the bull market and the S&P 500 is up 193% since the close on March 9, 2009.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury sank, lifting yields to 1.88% from Tuesday’s 1.83%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices rose $1.64 a barrel to $38.14 U.S.
Gold prices fell $10.09 to $1,251.35 U.S. an ounce.
