Stocks in Canada’s largest market enjoyed marginal gains soon after Wednesday’s opening bell, but worries about a full-scale U.S.-China trade war -- and how Beijing will respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's policy moves – put a lid on such gains.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index showed gains of 30.26 points to start Wednesday at 16,310.35
The Canadian dollar edged up 0.04 cents to 75.21 cents U.S.
Energy led gainers upward, as Suncor gathered $1.14, or 2.1%, to $54.29, while Canadian Natural Resources gained 81 cents, or 1.8%, to $45.99.
Sun Life Financial’s CEO says the company expects to double its profit in Asia over the next five years on strong demand for insurance in key markets like China where it was keen to raise its ownership in a joint venture. Sun Life picked up seven cents to $52.87.
Corus Entertainment on Wednesday reported quarterly revenue that missed Wall Street estimates, hit by weakness in its television business. Corus forfeited 70 cents a share, or 11.1%, to $5.55.
TD Securities cut the rating on CAP REIT to hold from buy. Units in the REIT shed 28 cents to $42.65.
National Bank of Canada resumes coverage on Killam Apartment REIT with an outperform rating and $16.00 price target. Killam units squeezed ahead eight cents to $14.86.
Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau says he wants North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations to resume as soon as possible, adding that while the Canadian economy was doing well, tariffs imposed by the United States on steel and aluminum were a problem.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange backtracked 0.91 points to 744.18
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower in the first hour, as health-care retreated 2.3%, gold lost 0.4%, and financials were off 0.1%.
The five gainers were led by energy, up 1.8%, industrials, taking on 0.3%, and consumer discretionary stocks, inching ahead 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Wednesday as a crackdown on Chinese tech investments by the Trump administration was less restrictive than expected.
The Dow Jones Industrials climbed 205.16 points to 24,488.27, with Chevron as the best-performing stock in the index.
The S&P 500 gained 19.16 points to 2,742.22, with energy outperforming.
The NASDAQ hiked 34.44 points to 7,596.06
Shares of chipmakers Micron Technology, Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia all rose at least half a percent. Dow components Caterpillar, Apple and Boeing all climbed more than 0.8%.
The government will rely on the newly strengthened Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to deal with concerns about foreign purchase of sensitive domestic technologies, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained, lowering yields to 2.86% from Tuesday’s 2.88%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices took on $1.22 to $71.75 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slipped $3.10 to $1,256.80 U.S. an ounce.
