Equities in Canada’s largest centre opened higher on Tuesday as soft data in the United States kept hopes for a September rate-cut by the Federal Reserve intact, while declines in commodity-linked shares limited gains.
The TSX Composite Index climbed 79.66 points to commence trading Tuesday at 22,478.59.
The Canadian dollar eked ahead 0.04 cents to 72.80 cents U.S.
Engineering and professional services firm WSP Global said it would acquire U.S.-based Power Engineers for $1.78 billion. Shares in WSP perked 63 cents to $213.02.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange advanced 3.09 points to begin Tuesday at 543.74.
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups surged ahead, led by information technology, up 1.4%, while gold brightened 0.8%, and financials improved 0.7%.
The three laggards proved to be health-care, sliding 0.6%, energy, down 0.4%, and real-estate, off 0.04%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks were higher Tuesday as investors parse this week’s first batch of key inflation data and weighed fresh earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial index recovered 73.84 points to 39,430.85.
The S&P 500 index gained 41.31 points to 5,385.70.
The NASDAQ popped 226.79 points, or 1.4%, to 17,007.40.
Shares of Home Depot dropped 1.6% after the home improvement retailer cut its full-year sales outlook. Starbucks surged more than 10% after the coffee chain tapped current Chipotle chief executive Brian Niccol as its next CEO. Shares of Chipotle sank more than 9%.
The producer price index — a measure of wholesale prices — increased 0.1% last month. Economists expected the reading to show a monthly gain of 0.2% in July, in line with the previous month’s reading, according to Dow Jones consensus estimates.
The PPI encouraged investors ahead of the more widely followed consumer price index out Wednesday morning, which is expected to show an increase of 0.2% last month, up from a 0.1% decline in the prior month. The data could give an uncertain market some direction after last week’s wild moves.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained ground early Tuesday, lowering yields to 3.87% from Monday’s 3.91%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped $1.23 at $78.83 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices were better by five dollars to $2,509.00.
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