Equities in Canada’s largest market made more headway on Wednesday, gaining for the fifth straight day as higher oil prices supported the shares of energy companies.
The S&P/TSX Composite acquired 25.21 points in gains to open the first official session of winter at 15,318.17
The Canadian dollar remained positive 0.13 cents to 74.72 cents U.S.
Indian telecommunications carrier Reliance Communications Ltd said it had signed a binding pact with Canada's Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP for selling a stake in its mobile phone tower business.
Shares in Brookfield scaled back 12 cents to $44.91.
Canaccord Genuity cut the target price on Amaya Inc. to $28.00 from $42.00. Amaya shares docked four cents to $18.96.
Canaccord Genuity raised the target price on SNC-Lavalin Group to $67.00 from $53.00
SNC shares spiked $2.06, or 3.6%, to $59.18.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that average weekly earnings among Canadians were $954.00 in October, down 0.1% from the previous month and unchanged from 12 months earlier.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange continued its downward journey, doffing 3.87 points to 716.87
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher to start out, with energy gushing 0.6%, industrials and utilities better by 0.5% each.
The four laggards were gold, down 0.4%, materials, off 0.3%, and information technology, inching back 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities traded slightly lower on Wednesday as investors awaited the Dow Jones industrial average reaching a major milestone.
The Dow backed away from Tuesday’s record highs, docking 10.93 points to 19,963.69, with Goldman Sachs contributing the most losses.
The S&P 500 lost 2.7 points to 2,268.06, with financials lagging
The NASDAQ composite index subtracted 10.9 points to 5,473.04
In corporate news, Twitter's CTO Adam Messinger announced is leaving the company after five years. Meanwhile, Amazon was hit by a strike at its German warehouses in a dispute over pay and working conditions. The strike is scheduled to run until Dec. 24.
The only major economic data due Wednesday were existing home sales for November, which hit 5.61 million units, and weekly mortgage applications, which rose 2.5%.
Treasury prices for the 10-year note inched forward, lowering yields to 2.55% from Tuesday’s 2.56%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices improved but 15 cents to $53.45 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices moved upward $1.70 to $1,135.30 U.S. an ounce.
