Equities in Canada’s largest market opened slightly higher on Thursday, as gains for heavyweight energy stocks offset slips for big insurers and gold miners.
The S&P/TSX Composite squeezed ahead 1.88 points to open Thursday at 15,307.77
The Canadian dollar lurched lower 0.69 cents to 74.1 cents U.S.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was "very supportive" of TransCanada Corp's proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline in their first conversation after the U.S. election.
TransCanada shares raced ahead 39 cents to $62.14.
Desjardins raised the target price on Bank of Montreal to $96.00 from $94.00. BMO shares doffed one cent to $97.10.
BMO raised the target price on Encana to $15.00 from $14.00. Shares in the oil company took on 13 cents to $16.63.
Canaccord Genuity raised the target price on SNC-Lavalin Group to $67.00 from $53.00. SNC doffed 27 cents to $58.28.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported November’s consumer price index rose 1.2% on a year-over-year basis in November, following a 1.5% increase in October. On a seasonally- adjusted monthly basis, the CPI was down 0.2% in November, after increasing 0.2% in October.
The agency also says retail sales rose for the third consecutive month, rising 1.1% to $45.0 billion in October. Higher sales at gasoline stations and general merchandise stores mostly fueled the gain.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eased 0.01 points to 718.48
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly divided between gainers and losers, as gold hiked 0.7%, while materials and energy each improved 0.4%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by consumer staples, down 0.3%, while information technology and financials each retreated 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities fell on Thursday as investors parsed through a series of economic data, while the Dow Jones industrial average struggled to reach a key psychological level.
The Dow backtracked 15.38 points to 19,926.58, Visa contributing the most losses, pulling it further away from the 20,000-point level.
The S&P 500 lost 3.24 points to 2,261.94, with consumer discretionary and real-estate leading decliners.
The NASDAQ composite index subtracted nine points to 5,462.43
U.S. initial jobless claims jumped to 275,000 last week, with economists expecting those numbers to total 256,000. Durable goods orders for November fell 4.6% last month, less than expected.
Meanwhile, the final read on third-quarter U.S. gross domestic product came in at 3.5%, above the expected 3.2%.
Personal income remained flat in November while consumer spending increased modestly.
Treasury prices for the 10-year note sidled lower, raising yields to 2.55% from Wednesday’s 2.54%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 60 cents to $53.09 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices added $1.30 to $1,134.50 U.S. an ounce.
