Canada's main stock index forged into the green by the close on Thursday as better corporate earnings helped the market recover from the biggest one-day decline in three years on Wednesday.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index remained positive 14.95 points – off its highs of the day -- to end Thursday at 14,924.08
The Canadian dollar shed 0.15 cents to 76.51 cents U.S.
Health-care stocks led the parade, as cannabis concerns like Canopy Growth climbed $2.00, or 4%, to $51.54, while Aurora Cannabis tacked on 15 cents, or 1.6%, to $9.61.
Shopify jumped $17.80, or 11.2%, to $177.27, after reporting a surprise quarterly profit as more subscribers and merchants signed up to use its platform.
Elsewhere in techs, BlackBerry gained 36 cents, or 3.1%, to $11.92.
Oil and gas producer Husky Energy recovered from early losses and made into way into positive territory by seven cents to $18.82, despite a better-than-expected quarterly profit, which was boosted by higher crude oil prices.
Imperial Oil was stronger by 75 cents, or 1.8%, to $41.84.
Goldcorp slumped $2.55, or 18.7%, the most on the TSX, to $11.05, fter the gold producer posted a bigger-than-expected loss in third quarter.
Rival Barrick Gold lost 63 cents, or 3.7%, to $16.40.
Materials were off as Teck Resources slid $2.02, or 7.5%, to $24.89, while Agnico Eagle Mines surrendered $1.65, or 3.5%, to $46.17.
Utilities also finished the day lower, as Fortis Inc. skidded 44 cents, or 1%, to $43.40.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $1,006 in August, up 0.6% from July. Compared with August 2017, earnings rose 2.9%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 4.8 points to 646.62
Eight of the 12 subgroups were higher by the close, with health-care mightier by 3%, information technology improving 2.1%, and energy ahead 1.8%
The four laggards were weighed most by gold, wilting 5.1%, materials, down 2.9%, and utilities, off 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks jumped on Thursday as Wall Street recovered from a tumble in the previous session that sent two of the major indexes down for 2018.
The Dow Jones Industrials spiked 401.13 points, or 1.6%, to 24,984.55, as Microsoft outperformed.
The S&P 500 acquired 49.47 points, or 1.9%, to 2,705.57, as consumer discretionary and tech both rose more than 3%
The NASDAQ shook off Wednesday’s tech selloff and hurtled higher 209.93 points, or 3%, to 7,318.34, as Amazon rallied 7.1% ahead of the release of its earnings report. A 3.4% jump in Facebook and a 3.7% gain in Netflix also lifted the NASDAQ.
On Wednesday, the Dow plunged 608.01 points, erasing all of its gains for the year. The S&P 500 dropped 3.1% and also turned negative for the year. The NASDAQ fell 4.4%, entering correction territory.
These losses added to the indexes' steep decline for the month. Through Wednesday's close, the Dow tumbled 7.1%, and S&P 500 was off 8.9% for October. The NASDAQ, meanwhile, had lost 11.7%.
Microsoft reported earnings and revenue for the previous quarter that easily topped analyst expectations. The Dow component rose 5.8% on the news.
Tesla, meanwhile, posted a surprise profit, sending its shares up by 9.1%. Twitter also surged 15.6% on better-than-expected results. Not all quarterly reports were good, however. AMD shares tanked more than 15% after the company issued weak revenue guidance for the fourth quarter.
Thursday is the busiest day of the earnings season. After the bell, Amazon, Alphabet, Expedia and Snap are all scheduled to report earnings.
Thus far, the corporate earnings season is off to a good start. S&P 500 earnings are up 24.8% so far, with 82% of the companies that have reported beating estimates,
The data also show that earnings growth forecasts for the first two quarters are holding up nicely. As of Thursday morning, S&P 500 earnings were expected to grow by 8.4% in the first quarter of 2019, up slightly from the growth reported on Wednesday. Expected earnings growth for next year's second quarter also increased to 6.5% from 6.4% on Wednesday.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury lost ground, raising yields to 3.13% from Wednesday’s 3.11%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices improved 25 cents at $67.07 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices picked up $1.70 an ounce to $1,232.10
