Canada's main stock index built on early gains by noon hour EDT on Thursday as a grim March jobs report underscored the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus outbreak.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 67.34 points to 14,025.92
The Canadian dollar moved lower 0.11 to 70.72 cents U.S.
Gold miners were among the big winners Thursday morning, particularly Kinross Gold, taking on 48 cents, or 5.7%, to $8.93, and Yamana Gold which rose 30.5 cents, or 5.2%, to $6.17.
Interfor Corp fell 48 cents, or 7.2%, the most in the TSX, to $6.18, while shares in Aphria were down 45 cents, or 8.4%, to $4.88.
Economically speaking, Statistics Canada informed us that February manufacturing sales increased 0.5% to $56.2 billion in February, following five consecutive monthly decreases. The growth was mainly due to higher sales in the transportation equipment industry.
Sales increased in 11 of 21 industries, representing 58.4% of total Canadian manufacturing.
Elsewhere, Canada lost 177,300 jobs in March, including sharp declines in trade, transportation and utilities as well as leisure and hospitality, a report from payroll services provider ADP showed on Thursday.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange regained 4.75 points to 447.46
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were positive midday, with information technology sprinting 3%, gold brighter by 2.5%, and materials, 1.8% to the good.
The four laggards were headed by health-care, shedding 2.2%, financials, down 0.9%, and real-estate, weaker by 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite rose in volatile trading as Amazon and Netflix reached record levels, while investors digested more data reflecting the economic devastation from the coronavirus pandemic.
The 30-stock index came off its lows of the morning, but still trailed Wednesday’s close by 23.3 points to 23,481.05.
The S&P 500 regained 21.01 points to 2,804.37
The NASDAQ Composite jumped 155.8 points, or 1.9%, to 8,551.17. The NASDAQ 100, which is made up of the 100 largest companies in the composite, erased all of its year-to-date losses.
The Dow remains more than 20% below its all-time highs set in February, and and S&P 500 17.9% as marketplace jitters over the spread of the novel coronavirus and an uncertain vaccine timeline foster volatile trading on Wall Street.
Netflix got a boost after a Goldman Sachs analyst hiked his price target on the stock to $490 per share from $430 per share. The analyst also said the streaming giant will blow earnings estimates out of the water.
Thursday’s gains put Netflix up more than 37% year to date and Amazon up 30% for 2020.
Eager to restart significant portions of U.S. commerce, President Donald Trump again advocated for a gradual reopening of the economy during a press conference Wednesday evening.
The president said that there are also public health costs the result of keeping state economies closed. Lost income and benefit coverage, the president said, can also lead to significant and negative health outcomes.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury gained, lowering yields to 0.62% from Wednesday’s 0.64%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices recovered 13 cents to $20.00U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices picked up10 cents to $1,704.30 U.S. an ounce.
