Equities in Canada’s biggest centre had trouble making it to the breakeven point by midday Thursday, despite gains in energy shares on the back of higher oil prices, while Lithium Americas jumped after it agreed to buy Argentina-focused Millennial Lithium.
The S&P/TSX Composite fell 10.29 points to approach noon EST Thursday at 21,642.73.
The Canadian dollar dumped 0.13 cents at 79.16 cents U.S.
Lithium shares galloped 65 cents, or 1.6%, to $42.22, a day after it said it would buy Argentina-focused Millennial Lithium for $400 million in stock and cash, eclipsing an offer from China's Contemporary Amperex Technology
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported foreign investment in Canadian securities totalled $20.0 billion in September, led by acquisitions of Canadian corporate debt securities. Meanwhile, Canadian investment in foreign securities reached $17.2 billion, mainly purchases of US shares.
Leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico are set to agree to new methane curbs and COVID-19 vaccine donations when they meet for the first time in five years on Thursday, according to senior Biden administration officials.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange tumbled 24.06 points, or 2.4%, to 981.60
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower, with health-care plunging 6.1%, while gold lost 1.2%, and materials were off 0.8%.
The four gainers were led by energy, ahead 1%, while industrials and real-estate each improved 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks were mixed on Thursday as investors grappled with seasonal COVID worries and ongoing inflation concerns even as companies continued reporting blowout earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrials came off its lows of the morning, but still trailed Wednesday’s close by 49.76 points to 35,881.29 by noon hour Thursday.
The S&P 500 regained 15.64 points to 4,703.71.
The NASDAQ Composite regrouped 68.61 points to 15,990.18.
Trading has been choppy this week with the major averages mostly wavering around the flat line, but the S&P and NASDAQ are still on track for a positive week and are sitting less than 1% from their records. The Dow is 1.8% from its record.
Nvidia shares advanced nearly 10% after beating on the top and bottom lines of its quarterly results and issuing a bullish revenue forecast for the current quarter ending in January. The chipmaker saw a 55% gain in data center sales from the same period a year ago 42% increase in gaming, its biggest market.
Those gains helped lift other chip stocks trading. Advanced Micro Devices gained more than 4%. Qualcomm and Micron Technology added about 2%. Separately, GlobalFoundries saw a big pop after revealing it entered a partnership with Ford to help the automaker increase its chip supply. It was last about 4% higher.
Retail continued its big earnings week. Shares of Macy’s and Kohl’s kicked the day off smashing quarterly profit and revenue estimates, much like their peers who reported earlier in the week.
Macy’s said same-store sales grew 35.6% and digital sales increased by 19%. It also teased the launch of a digital marketplace next year, and said 41% of its 4.4 million new customers in the quarter came through the digital channel. The company’s shares jumped almost 20%.
Kohl’s similarly saw gains in same-store sales growth and digital. Its shares added more than 6%.
Elsewhere, Deere saw its shares rise more than 2% after it came to a resolution with workers who had been on strike since Oct. 14.
Dow component Boeing also saw its shares rise another 1% following an upgrade from JPMorgan, which said the aerospace giant has significant upside as it clears up several issues that have dogged the company.
Going in the other direction, Cisco Systems fell 8% due to weaker revenue guidance and a revenue miss. Kraft Heinz shares also dropped more than 3% after the company announced a secondary offering of common stock.
Initial filings for unemployment insurance fell slightly to 268,000 for the week ending Nov. 13, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That was the lowest level since March 2020, and the seventh straight weekly decline. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected them to have fallen to 260,000, compared to the previous week’s adjusted 269,000 claims.
Prices for 10-year Treasurys were higher, thus lowering yields to 1.58% from Wednesday’s 1.59%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices recovered 14 cents to $78.50 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices fell $6.40 to $1,863.80 U.S. an ounce.
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