Stocks in Canada’s largest market built on momentum gathering throughout the last few weeks and strengthened by midday Wednesday, mostly on the strength of gold and financial stocks.
The S&P/TSX Composite climbed 68.93 points to greet noon at 15,194.73
The Canadian dollar recovered 0.16 cents to 75.47 cents U.S.
Bank of Montreal, which jumped on Tuesday after reporting solid earnings, added another 1% to $92.94 as several banks upped their price targets on the stock.
One of the most influential gainers was the world's largest gold producer, Barrick Gold Corp, which rose 2.9% to $21.14. Barrick said Latin America will play an increasingly important role in its growth strategy.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc fell 4.9% to $19.71.
The Bank of Canada, as expected, 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 gained 4.18 points to 752.38
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher, as gold shares jumped 2.3%, consumer discretionary stocks picked up 1.3%, and materials were better by 1.2%,
The three laggards were health-care, sliding 1%, while energy docked 0.5%, and telecoms skidded 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities traded mostly higher on Wednesday as real estate led advancers, while investors awaited a monetary policy announcement from the European Central Bank.
The Dow Jones Industrials improved on Tuesday’s all-time high, gaining 75.38 points to 19,327.16, with Home Depot contributing the most gains.
The S&P 500 added 6.48 points to 2,218.71, with real estate rallying nearly 1.4%.
The NASDAQ composite index recovered 4.91 points to 5,337.91
Entering Wednesday, the Dow had posted gains in 17 of the past 21 sessions and 11 record closes since the election. The S&P, meanwhile, has risen 3.4%, and the NASDAQ 2.7%, since Nov. 8.
Investors also looked ahead to a key ECB meeting, in which the central bank is largely expected to extend its quantitative easing program beyond March 2017, particularly after a Sunday referendum in Italy left the country's banks in a vulnerable spot.
There are no major U.S. economic data due Wednesday, one week before a Federal Reserve meeting in which the U.S. central bank is expected to raise interest rates. Experts put the chances of a rate hike around 95%.
Treasury prices for the 10-year note gained a bit, lowering yields to 2.35% from Tuesday’s 2.39%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped 90 cents to $50.03 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices recovered $8.80 to $1,178.90 U.S. an ounce.
