Equities in Canada’s largest market opened higher on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street's gains, as easing of coronavirus-induced restrictions in several countries led to hopes of a pick up in economic activity.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index took on 44.25 points to open Wednesday at 14,855.81.
The Canadian dollar subtracted 0.42 cents to 70.82 cents U.S.
Suncor Energy Inc deepened its spending cuts, suspended its share repurchase program and cut its quarterly dividend by 55%, hit by a historic plunge in oil prices caused by a feud between Saudi Arabia and Russia and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Suncor shares removed four cents to $23.24.
Sun Life’s CEO said Tuesday life insurers face a challenging year as rising unemployment from the coronavirus pandemic reduces group benefit and retirement plan enrollment, and market declines and credit deterioration weigh on asset-management earnings.
Sun Life shares rose $2.21, or 4.9%, to $47.00.
Imperial Oil on Tuesday said 50 birds died after landing on tailings ponds near its Kearl Lake oilsands site in Alberta.
IMO shares docked six cents to $21.31.
Barrick Gold reported a nearly 55% rise in quarterly adjusted profit on Wednesday, benefiting from a surge in gold prices and higher copper production. Shares in Barrick lost 84 cents, or 2.1%, to $38.82.
Shopify beat revenue estimates on Wednesday as more users visited its platform after coronavirus-driven lockdowns led merchants to move their businesses online. Shopify shares picked up $9.77, or 1%, to $977.02.
Cormark Securities cut the rating on Air Canada to market perform from buy. Air Canada shares sank 38 cents, or 2.2%, to $16.33.
Citigroup raised the rating on Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to buy from neutral. CIBC shares doffed 22 cents to $81.83.
Citigroup raised the rating on Royal Bank of Canada to buy from neutral. Royal shares stalled 46 cents to $84.42.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 4.4 points to 480.47.
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher in the first hour, with information technology stocks improving 1.4%, consumer discretionary stocks up 1.2%, and real-estate adding 0.5% worth of strength.
The three laggards proved to be gold, down 1.3%, energy, sputtering 0.8%, and materials, off 0.7%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks dipped on Wednesday after back-to-back gains as investors weighed the prospects of reopening the economy along with a dismal report on U.S. payrolls.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 63.62 points to 23,819.47.
The S&P 500 skidded 7.34 points to 2,861.10.
The NASDAQ Composite gained 26.93 points, or 1.1%, to 8,836.05.
Big tech stocks such as Facebook and Netflix rose 1.4% and 2.3%, respectively. Amazon and Alphabet each rose 0.8% while Apple traded 1.7% higher.
Stocks were also kept in check as crude prices reversed course to trade more than 4% lower. West Texas Intermediate futures were coming off a five-session winning streak and are up about 28% for May. Those losses in oil prices led to a 1.4% drop in the S&P 500 energy sector. Occidental Petroleum, Marathon Petroleum and National Oilwell Varco all dropped more than 2%.
President Donald Trump acknowledged on Tuesday that "there’ll be more death" from coronavirus but argued that not reopening businesses would also cost people their lives in other ways such as drug overdoses and suicides.
California will permit clothing stores, bookstores and flower shops to reopen for curbside pickup as soon as Friday while New York plans to ease restrictions on manufacturers, construction, and select retailers next week. This easing of restrictions has led investors to bet that the economy will restart in the near future.
A report from ADP and Moody’s Analytics showed private payrolls were cut by 20.2 million last month. That was the worst report in the data series’ history. Still, it was not as bad as a Dow Jones estimate of 22 million job losses.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury fell sharply, raising yields to 0.72% from Tuesday’s 0.65%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped 90 cents to $23.66 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slipped $14.60 to $1,696 U.S. an ounce.
