Stocks in Canada’s largest market followed their American brethren substantially higher, on the shoulders of the consumer staples and communications subgroups.
The TSX Composite Index charged ahead 105.9 points to conclude Thursday at 17,757.49
The Canadian dollar lopped off 0.02 cents to 75.23 cents U.S.
Consumer staples led the parade, with Alimentation Couche-Tard hiking $1.19, or 2.7%, to $45.96, while Empire Company headed skyward 62 cents, or 2%, to $31.31.
Among communications, BCE traveled $1.29 higher, or 2.1%. to $64.16, while Cogeco Communications added $1.46, or 1.3%, to $108.54.
Real-estate issues were better, too, as units of Allied Properties REIT gained 84 cents, or 1.5%, to $56.16, with Artis REIT progressing 18 cents, or 1.5%, to $12.19.
Health-care stocks, however, headed downward, as Aphria docked 31 cents, or 5%, to $5.84, while Aurora Cannabis skidded 14 cents, or 5%, to $2.67.
Energy stocks faded, as Suncor let go of $1.47, or 3.6%, to $39.53, while MEG Energy sank 22 cents, or 2.9%, to $7.33.
In the consumer discretionary field, The Stars Group eased $1.01, or 3.2%, to $31.08, while BRP Inc. doffed $1.99, or 2.8%, to $68.69.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 1.64 points to wrap up Thursday at 578.
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were positive on the session with consumer staples up 1.4%, communications ahead 1.2%, and real-estate ahead 1.1%.
The three laggards were health-care, off 1.6%, energy, retreating 1.3%, and consumer discretionary stocks, down 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose to all-time highs 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 88.92 points to 29,379.77. Boeing shares led the Dow higher with a 3.6% gain.
The S&P 500 added 11.09 points at 3,345.78. Communication services and tech were the best-performing sectors in the S&P 500, rising more than 0.8% each.
The NASDAQ took on 63.47 points to 9,572.15. Microsoft contributed to the advance, rising more than 2%.
The Dow and NASDAQ are both up at least 4% week to date while the S&P 500 has gained 3.8%, on pace for its biggest weekly gain since June. The major indexes all dropped at least 1.8% last week.
The corporate earnings season continued with Twitter and Bristol-Myers Squibb releasing their quarterly numbers. Twitter shares jumped more than 15% on its results while Bristol traded higher by 2.3%.
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 1.64% from Wednesday’s 1.65%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices added 36 cents to $51.11 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices advanced $7.60 to $1,570.40 U.S. an ounce.
