Equities in Canada’s biggest centre gathered steam early Tuesday afternoon, as energy stocks pushed higher with a jump in oil prices, while financial stocks pulled back after a sharp rally following the shock U.S. presidential election victory of Donald Trump.
The S&P/TSX Composite moved higher 58.69 points to begin Tuesday at 14,657.14
The Canadian dollar regained 0.27 cents, to 74.01 cents U.S.
The most influential gainers on the Canadian index included its biggest energy producers, with Suncor Energy rising 2.5% to $40.77 and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd advancing 2.4% to $42.76. Encana added 2.4% to $42.76.
The energy group climbed as oil prices bounced back from multi-month lows on expectations that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will agree later this month to cut production to reduce a crude glut.
The financials group slipped as a rally in global bond yields paused, with Toronto-Dominion Bank down 0.7% to $62.51 and Bank of Nova Scotia losing 0.9% to $69.24.
Manulife Financial declined 1.5% to $22.82 after four days of sharp gains took the stock to its highest since August 2015.
Shares in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International declined 2.3% to $23.24. Its chief executive said it has received offers for some core assets.
On the economic beat, the Canadian Real Estate Association said national home sales rose 2.4% from September to October. Actual (not seasonally-adjusted) activity was up 2.0% year-over-year in October 2016.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange took on 3.75 points to 733.39
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups were positive heading into the afternoon session, as energy gushed 3.4%, gold shone brighter 2.1%, and materials clicked 1.5% higher
Only financials were in the red, and 0.4% at that.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded mostly higher on Tuesday, led by gains in energy and utilities, as investors parsed through a number of economic data sets while a post-election rally slowed down.
The Dow Jones Industrials faded 25.59 points from Monday’s all-time high, to 18,843.10, on track to snap a six-day winning streak, with JPMorgan Chase, Home Depot and Boeing contributing the most to losses.
The S&P 500 gained 7.16 points at 2,171.34, with energy rising 2.3% and utilities rising 1.7%
The NASDAQ composite index strengthened 41.73 points to 5,260.13, as Apple and the so-called FANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google's parent firm Alphabet) all rose.
In economic news, retail sales rose 0.8% in October while import prices 0.5%, both beating expectations. The November read on the New York manufacturing index also came in above estimates.
Other data released Tuesday included business inventories for September, which came in line with expectations.
Amid these data reports, Goldman Sachs raised its third-quarter GDP estimates 3.2%, and its ourth-quarter estimates to 2.6%.
Treasury prices for the 10-year note regained lost ground, weighing yields to 2.22% from Monday’s 2.24%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices sprang higher $1.97 to $45.29 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices remained positive $1.70 to $1,223.40 U.S. an ounce.
