Equities in Toronto stayed higher by noon Tuesday, helped by financial sector gains and moves higher in shares of Agrium Inc and Potash Corp of Saskatchewan after a competition watchdog gave their planned merger a green light.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 84.4 points to greet noon at 15,124.70
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.41 cents to 82.23 cents U.S.
Agrium gained 0.9% to $125.43 and Potash Corp rose 1% to $22.40 after Canada's Competition Bureau said it will not challenge their proposed merger.
Bombardier rose 0.8% to $2.43 as Britain and Canada team up to intervene in a dispute between the Canadian aircraft maker and Boeing Co.
The heavyweight financials group gained, with Toronto-Dominion Bank up 0.6% at $66.80 and insurer Manulife Financial adding 0.5% to $24.07 as Hurricane Irma appeared to have caused less damage than feared.
Energy stocks tracked oil prices slightly higher, while Nuvista Energy Ltd jumped 5.8% to $6.91 after it reaffirmed its 2017 guidance.
Centerra Gold rose 0.8% to $9.14, a day after saying it had reached an agreement with Kyrgyzstan over its Kumtor gold mine.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 2.4 points to 771.99
All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups gained ground midday, led by health-care, up 1.6%, energy, 1.1% better, and industrials, stronger by 0.8%
The two laggards were utilities and consumer staples, losing 0.2% each.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as financials received a boost from rising yields. Wall Street also looked ahead to Apple's consumer products event.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 62.91 points to pause for lunch at 22,120.28, with Goldman Sachs contributing the most to the gains.
DowDuPont, meanwhile, was the best-performing stock in the index, trading 2.1% higher.
The S&P 500 improved on Monday’s record by gaining 5.58 points to 2,493.69, as telecommunications and financials led advancers.
The NASDAQ moved higher 6.63 points to 6,438.90
Apple's event is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The tech giant is expected to unveil three new iPhone models, a new Apple Watch and a new Apple TV.
Shares of Apple fell 0.3%, erasing earlier gains and following a historical trend. The tech giant's stock was lower 75% of the time on days the company made iPhone announcements.
But for the year, the stock has jumped approximately 40% and one Drexel Hamilton analyst thinks it will benefit from the upcoming iPhone cycle.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note stepped back, hiking yields to 2.17% from Monday’s 2.14%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gaining 30 cents to $48.37
Gold prices slid $4.20 to $1,331.50 U.S. an ounce.
