Equities in Canada’s biggest market found their way out of Wednesday’s dungeon Thursday, helped by broad gains for financial stocks a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve hiked interest rates and struck a hawkish note on further increases, a move which weighed on Canadian gold miners.
The S&P/TSX Composite recovered 56.34 points to greet noon Thursday at 15,253.52
The Canadian dollar dropped 1.43 cents to 74.69 cents U.S.
Bombardier surged 3.7% to $1.98 after saying growth in its rail business and the ramp-up of the C Series aircraft program should help boost full-year consolidated revenue in 2017 by a low single-digit percentage.
A string of gold miners topped the list of the index's most influential weights, with Barrick Gold falling 3.7% to $18.81 and Yamana Gold down 6.4% at $3.49.
Royal Bank of Canada rose 1.1% to $91.69 and Toronto-Dominion Bank added 1.3% to $66.59.
Insurers also rose, with Manulife Financial up 1.9% to $24.83 and Sun Life Financial notching a 2% gain to $52.24.
Supermarket owner Empire Co fell 12.4% to $16.39 after reporting a sharp miss on quarterly profit as same-store sales fell.
Athabasca Oil advanced 16.2% to $1.65 after the Calgary-based company agreed to buy Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA's Canadian oil sands assets in a deal worth up to $832 million.
Canadian Natural Resources advanced 0.4% to $44.93 after modestly increasing its 2017 capital budget and saying production should rise by 6%.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International fell 5.8%to $17.70, as Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to equal-weight from overweight.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported manufacturing sales tailed off 0.8% to $51.0 billion in October, following two consecutive monthly gains. The agency attributes the largest decreases to the primary metal, petroleum and coal product, and machinery industries
The Canadian Real Estate Association reported that national home sales fell 5.3% from October to November. Actual (not seasonally-adjusted) activity remained 1.6% above levels in November 2015.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange plummeted 13.47 points, or 1.8%, to 728.06
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher by midday, with information technology sprinting 1.1%, while industrials and financials up 1% each.
The five laggards were weighed by gold, down 3.7%, materials, down 2%, and health-care, sliding 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rose on Thursday as a post-election rally resumed, while investors digested a slew of economic data and the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrials regained 118.31 points to 19,910.84, with Goldman Sachs contributing the most gains.
The S&P 500 gained 14.16 points to 2,267.42, with financials rising around 1.5% to lead advancers.
The NASDAQ composite index climbed 36.85 points to 5,473.53.
In economic news, the U.S. Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% in November, in line with expectations. Weekly jobless claims, meanwhile, came in at 254,000. The Philadelphia Fed business index rose 21.5 in December, versus a November read of 7.6, while the Empire State manufacturing index rose to 9.0 in December from 1.5 in November.
Investors also digested manufacturing data from IHS Markit, with the December manufacturing PMI index coming in at 54.2, marginally above November's 54.1. A number above 50 indicates expansion within a sector.
The NAHB homebuilder sentiment index rose seven points to 70, easily beating expectations.
Treasury prices for the 10-year note moved lower, raising yields to 2.59% from Wednesday’s 2.57%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell 33 cents to $50.71 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices fell $36.20 to $1,127.50 U.S. an ounce.
