Stocks found their wings as the clock approached noon EDT on Thursday, after several days of heavy losses.
The TSX Composite Index reversed the negative trend shown this week – however temporarily – and gained 311.4 points, or 2.7%., to move into Thursday noon hour at 12,032.82
The Canadian dollar squirted ahead 0.01 cents at 69.12 cents U.S.
Health-care issues were the runaway winner among sectors, as HEXO collected 31 cents, or 59.6%, to 83 cents. Bausch Health Companies climbed $3.29, or 18.1%, to $21.45.
Consumer discretionary stocks rocketed, too, as Canadian Tire acquired $2.34, or 3.2%, to $76.65.
Energy stocks stormed back, as Imperial Oil popped $1.38, or 12.3%, to $12.56.
Real-estate stocks took a header, though, as Allied Properties REIT slumped 56 cents, or 1.5%, to $37.28.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada new housing price index was up 0.4% in February.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 0.94 points to 339.74.
All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups prospered by noon hour Thursday, with health-care leaping 11.3%, consumer discretionary up 7.1%, and energy up 5.7%.
The two laggards were real-estate, sinking 2.3%, and gold, sifting off 0.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks jumped on Thursday, erasing steep losses from earlier in the day as sharp gains in big-tech shares led to a sharp turnaround.
The Dow Jones Industrials settled back 33.39 points, by midday to 19,865.53.
The broader S&P 500 recovered 0.9 points – off its highs of the morning -- to 2,399. Wall Street has been on an unprecedented roller-coaster ride amid the coronavirus turmoil, with the S&P 500 swinging 4% or more in either direction for eight consecutive sessions.
The NASDAQ jumped 134.20 points, or 1.9%, to 7,124.04. Shares of Netflix took on 6.5%, and Facebook 7.2%. Amazon gained 4.7%.
Among the industries trading in positive territory Thursday morning was energy, with the S&P sector up more than 0.5%. Big oil producers like Diamondback Energy and Apache rose more than 8% each as futures contracts tied to the price of West Texas Intermediate crude rallied more than 15% to $23.47, on pace for its fourth-best day ever.
Prices for the 10-Year U.S. Treasury jumped sharply, lowering yields to 1.13% from Wednesday’s 1.21%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $3.52 to $23.89 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dropped $1.10 to $1,476.80 U.S. an ounce.
Stocks Rebound from Rough Week
