Canada’s main stock index kept its positive status approaching noon on Wednesday, after the Bank of Canada maintained its key overnight interest rates as expected but cut domestic and global growth forecasts.
The TSX Composite Index recovered 38.61 points to greet noon Wednesday trading at 16,456.75
The Canadian dollar slumped 0.47 cents to 75.92 cents U.S.
The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Wesdome Gold Mines, which jumped 58 cents, or 8.2%, to $7.69, after the company announced exploration drilling at the Eagle River mine.
Maple Leaf Foods fell $3.14, 10.8%, the most on the TSX, to $25.85, after the packaged meat producer missed quarterly earnings expectations.
The Bank of Canada today maintained its target for the overnight rate at 1.75% The Bank Rate is correspondingly 2% and the deposit rate is 1.5%
The central bank said Canada’s economy would shrink by about 4.5% by 2021 if a global slowdown became more pronounced because of a higher-than-expected degree of uncertainty.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange was unchanged at 538.25
All but three of the 12 Toronto subgroups were higher midday, with gains by information technology of 1.3%, while health-care was 0.9% bolder, and communications picked up 0.8%.
The three laggards were energy, down 0.6%, materials, off 0.3%, and consumer discretionary stocks, off 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks slipped on Wednesday as market participants waited for the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates following the release of key economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 27.29 points mid-Wednesday to 27,044.13
The S&P 500 slipped 4.04 points to 3,032.85,
The NASDAQ Composite Index stumbled 12.83 points to 8,264.02
The corporate earnings season also continued Wednesday with General Electric posting results that topped analyst expectations. GE also raised its forecast for 2019 cash flow, sending its stock up 10.5%.
CME Group and ADP also reported better-than-expected earnings. Apple, Facebook, Starbucks and Lyft are among the companies set to release their results after the bell.
So far, the corporate earnings season has been better than feared. Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported, 74% have posted better-than-expected earnings
The Fed is largely expected to cut announce a 25 basis-point rate cut at 2 p.m. ET. That would be the central bank’s third rate cut of 2019.
But investors will look for clues about the Fed’s moves after this meeting. Market expectations for another interest rate cut in December are at 23%, compared with almost 70% earlier this month.
The Commerce Department said U.S. Gross Domestic Product grew by 1.9% in the third quarter, topping expected growth of 1.6%. The better-than-expected print was driven by continued consumer spending along with government expenditures.
U.S. private payrolls increased by 125,000 in October, according to ADP and Moody’s Analytics. That topped a Dow Jones estimate of 100,000. However, September payrolls were trimmed down by 42,000 to 93,000.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury were up slightly, lowering yields to 1.80% from Tuesday’s 1.83%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slipped 89 cents to $54.65 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $6.90 to $1,495.10 U.S. an ounce.
