Higher Open for TSX

Equities in Toronto opened higher on Friday after the U.S. House of Representatives approved a new North American trade deal, while BlackBerry shares surged after reporting better-than-expected quarterly revenue.

The TSX Composite Index amassed 60.48 points to open Friday’s session at 17,124.52

The Canadian dollar docked 0.24 cents to 75.95 cents U.S.

BlackBerry shares jumped 77 cents, or 10%, to $8.40

Australian miner South32 Ltd and base metal explorer Trilogy Metals Inc will become equal partners in a joint venture that will own and operate an Alaskan copper and base metal project.

Trilogy shares gained 18 cents, or 6.4%, to $3.00.

Miner Centamin Plc should extend a deadline for Endeavour Mining to make a firm takeover offer, a top shareholder with both companies said on Thursday, increasing pressure on the London-listed miner to engage in talks.

Endeavour shares declined 26 cents, or 1.1%, to $23.24.

Enbridge submitted on Thursday its application to the Canada Energy Regulator to contract out space on its Mainline oil pipeline, and said it had significant support from shippers, documents filed with the regulator showed.

Enbridge picked up 41 cents to $51.76.

CIBC raised the target price on Ero Copper Group to $21.50 from $21.00. Ero shares handed back a penny to $21.99.

CIBC cut the rating on Gibson Energy to neutral from outperform and raised target price to $29.00 from $28.00. Gibson shares acquired 49 cents, or 1.8%, to $27.33.

On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported retail sales in Canada sank 1.2% to $50.9 billion in October. The agency attributes the decline to lower sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers and at building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers.

What’s more, the agency’s new housing price index was down 0.1% in November, following three consecutive monthly increases.

ON BAYSTREET

The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 0.06 points to 544.58

All but three of the 12 subgroups were higher, with information technology jumping 0.7%, financials ahead 0.5%, and consumer staples, better by 0.4%.

The three laggards were health-care and energy, each down 0.3%, and materials, off 0.04%.

ON WALLSTREET

Stocks traded higher and made fresh record highs on Friday to end a week that saw solid gains as geopolitical risks abate toward the end of a blockbuster 2019.

The Dow Jones Industrials leaped 84.14 points to open Friday at 28,461.10.

The S&P 500 added 12.15 points to Thursday’s all-time high, to 3,217.52. The S&P 500 is up nearly 28% year to date with less than 10 trading days left in 2019. That would be the index’s best one-year performance since 2013, when it rallied 29.6%.

The NASDAQ piled 21.56 points onto Thursday’s all-time record, at 8,908.

Entering Friday’s session, the S&P 500 was up 1.2% for the week and was headed for its fourth consecutive weekly gain. The Dow collected 0.9%, while NASDAQ was up 1.7%, for the week.

In economic news, the U.S. economy grew by 2.1% in the third quarter. Consumer sentiment data for December is slated for release at 10 a.m.

Prices for the 10-Year U.S. Treasury lost ground, raising yields to 1.93% from Thursday’s 1.92%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices slumped 52 to $60.66 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices dumped $2.10 at $1,482.30 U.S. an ounce.

Stocks Shoot for Higher Records