Equity markets rose on Thursday, buoyed by China's decision to halve additional tariffs levied on some U.S. goods, but gains were capped by losses in energy stocks due to lower oil prices.
The TSX Composite Index tacked on 81.96 points to greet noon EST Thursday at 17,733.55
The Canadian dollar lopped off 0.02 cents to 75.23 cents U.S.
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Innergex Renewable Energy, which jumped $1.74, or 9.2%, to $20.64, after a price target hike by National Bank of Canada.
FirstService rose $7.97, or 5.7%, to $146.87, after at least three brokerages raised price targets for the stock after its fourth-quarter results.
MEG Energy fell 16 cents, or 2.1%, the most on the TSX, to $7.39, after TD Securities cut its price target on the stock. The second-biggest decliner was Lightspeed POS, which fell $5.28, or 11.9%, to $38.96, after quarterly results.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange inched up 0.22 points to begin Thursday to 576.58.
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were positive midday with communications climbing 1.3%, consumer staples up 1.1%, and real-estate ahead 0.9%.
The three laggards were energy, fading 0.7%, consumer discretionary stocks down 0.6%, and health-care, sliding 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Thursday after China announced it will halve tariffs on a slew of U.S. products. Strong corporate earnings results and solid economic data also gave the major indexes a boost.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 69.32 points to 29,360.17, after hitting a record high at the open.
The S&P 500 added 9.32 points at 3,344.01
The NASDAQ took on 47.23 points to 9,555.92.
The corporate earnings season continued with Twitter and Bristol-Myers Squibb releasing their quarterly numbers. Twitter shares jumped more than 17% on its results while Bristol traded higher by 1.6%.
More than 60% of S&P 500 companies have reported earnings thus far, with 71% of them beating analyst expectations. The overall earnings growth rate has been low, but it is better than the more-than 4% contraction initially expected.
On the data front, weekly jobless claims stateside fell to a nine-month low last week, reaching 202,000. The data follows better-than-forecast private payrolls numbers from ADP and Moody’s Analytics.
China announced overnight it will halve tariffs on U.S. imports totaling about $75 billion. China’s finance ministry said the tariff cut was timed in conjunction with a U.S. decision last month to halve tariffs on roughly $120 billion worth of Chinese products.
Tariffs on some U.S. goods will be cut from 10% to 5%, and from 5% to 2.5% on others, which will take effect on Feb. 14.
That decision was made as part of a broader “phase-one” trade deal between China and the U.S. The agreement put the U.S.-China trade war, which had been hurting global growth prospects, on hold. President Donald Trump has said previously a phase-two agreement would be struck at a later date.
The cut also comes after the coronavirus death toll in China rose to 563, with a total of 28,018 cases confirmed as drugmakers race to find a vaccine.
Prices for the 10-Year U.S. Treasury gained back strength, lowering yields to Wednesday’s 1.65%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices added 14 cents to $50.89 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices advanced $4.80 to $1,567.60 U.S. an ounce.
