Stocks in Toronto inched higher on Tuesday morning with energy shares moving ahead while gold stocks headed lower.
The TSX Composite Index gained 8.61 points at 16,678.42.
BlackBerry announced its president and chief operating officer Bryan Palma's exit on Monday, saying he "has decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities."
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is in negotiations to sell its Caribbean business to a Colombian billionaire, hoping to close the books on a difficult sale process that has taken two years.
On the macroeconomic side, Statistics Canada reported Canada's imports fell 1.7% in September, while exports declined 1.3%. As a result, Canada's merchandise trade deficit with the world narrowed from $1.2 billion in August to $978 million in September.
The Canadian dollar was trading 0.1% higher at 1.3139 to the greenback, or 76.11 U.S. cents.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange inched down 1.82 points at 539.88.
Four of the Toronto subgroups trading higher this morning with energy racing ahead 1.46%, health-care stocks up 0.73%, and financial issues ahead by 0.42%.
On the downside -- gold was off 2.46%, techs shed 1.57%, and consumer staples dipped 0.79%.
December gold on Comex fell $22.20, or 1.5%, to $1,488.90 U.S. an ounce.
January Brent crude, the global benchmark, gained 70 cents, or 1.1%, to trade at $62.83 US a barrel.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks were higher Tuesday morning, fueled by better-than-expected data on the service sector, after the three main U.S. equity benchmarks hit new records on Monday boosted by hopes for a U.S - China trade deal.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 53 points, or 0.2%, at 27,519, while the S&P 500 index was up 1.2 points at 3,079, and the Nasdaq advanced 8 points, or 0.07%, at 8,437.
Optimism over negotiations between the U.S. and China remained intact Tuesday, after helping to drive benchmark indexes further into record territory on Monday, even though reports suggest that Beijing is driving a hard bargain against the backdrop of further signs of weakness in the world’s second-largest economy.
In economic news, the Institute of Supply Management’s U.S. service sector activity index rose to 54.7% in October, compared to forecasts from Econoday of 53.6%, and up from 52.6% in September. Any reading above 50 indicates improving conditions.
The U.S. trade deficit dropped 4.7% in September to a 5-month low, helped by first oil surplus since 1978, but the U.S. is still on track to post an even larger trade gap in 2019 than it did in 2018.
Boeing was leading the Dow, rising 1.3% to $355.48, after the planemaker's new chairman gave embattled CEO Dennis Muilenburg a vote of confidence.
Uber Technologies (UBER) declined 6.3% to $29.12 even after the ride-hailing giant posted a quarterly loss narrower than expected and revenue higher than forecasts. Uber is Real Money's Stock of the Day.
Yields for the 10-year Treasury were up at around 1.831%, representing the highest level for the benchmark debt since Oct. 29, with gains in yields momentarily undercutting demand for government paper. Bond prices fall as yields rise.
