Canada's main stock index opened higher on Thursday, helped by gains in shares of precious metal miners and energy companies
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 20.37 points to begin the last trading session of January at 15,504.92
The Canadian dollar docked 0.05 cents to 76.03 cents U.S.
Alberta will ease its oil cut in February and March, earlier than expected, saying on Wednesday that its rare step to limit production had eased a glut of crude.
JP Morgan raised the target price on Canadian National Railway to $119.00 from $116.00. CN shares added 17 cents to $109.75.
Morgan Stanley cut the target price on Imperial Oil to $42.00 from $51.00. IMO shares deducted three cents to $37.24.
Morgan Stanley raised the rating on MEG Energy to overweight from equal-weight. MEG shares gained 5.5 cents, or 1%, to $5.56.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported Thursday that Gross Domestic Product in this country edged down 0.1% in November, partly offsetting an increase of 0.3% in October.
As well, the agency’s industrial product price fell 0.7% in December, mainly due to lower prices for energy and petroleum products.
The Raw Materials Price Index was up 3.8%, driven primarily by prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange climbed 3.97 points to 619.17
In all, seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were in the green, led by health-care, haler 1%, information technology clicked 0.7% higher, while consumer staples picked up 0.6%.
The five laggards were weighed most by real-estate, settling 0.4%, energy, down 0.3%, and utilities, off 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Blue chips in New York fell on Thursday as equities took a breather following a sharp rally in the previous session. Declines in Microsoft and DowDuPont also pressured the index.
Wednesday marked the Dow’s first close above 25,000 since Dec. 4.
The S&P 500 added 10.01 points to 2,691.06. The S&P 500 is up about 7% this month and is on track to post its biggest January gain since 1989.
The NASDAQ Composite gathered 67.48 points to 7,250.56, on strong Facebook earnings.
Microsoft fell 2% after the company reported weaker-than-expected revenue and earnings that barely beat expectations. The tech giant also issued quarterly earnings guidance that was lower than expected.
DowDuPont, another Dow member, fell 8.4% on the back of mixed quarterly results. Tesla shares dipped 4% on the back of weaker-than-expected earnings. The company also said its CFO was leaving his post.
These results overshadowed strong earnings reactions from General Electric and Facebook. Shares of Facebook surged 10.5% after the company’s quarterly results easily topped expectations. GE shares jumped 9.3% on stronger-than-forecast revenue.
Thursday was the last day of the month and the S&P 500 was on pace to post its biggest monthly gain since October 2015. The surge this month follows a massive drop in December.
Last month, the S&P 500 fell 9.2% and briefly dipped into bear-market territory on an intraday basis on Christmas Eve. Since Dec. 24, however, stocks have been on a tear, with the S&P 500 rising about 14%.
The major indexes shot up on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it will be “patient” with raising rates moving forward
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury climbed, lowering yields to 2.65% from Wednesday’s 2.69%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained a dollar to $55.23 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices popped $11.90 to $1,327.40 U.S. an ounce.
