Stocks in Canada’s biggest market rose in morning trading on Thursday, with the energy sector up decently as oil prices rebounded and as a slew of oil and gas companies reported quarterly earnings.
The S&P/TSX Composite surged 78.37 points to greet noon at 14,885.93
The Canadian dollar subtracted 0.11 cents to 74.63 cents U.S.
Suncor Energy was the most influential gainer, jumping 5.3% to $41.47. Suncor reported better-than-expected third-quarter profit on strong upstream production, lower operating costs and record crude throughput at its refineries.
Cenovus Energy rose 3% to $20.76 even as it reported a steeper loss than expected and cut its 2016 exploration and production budget again.
Shares in Barrick Gold gained 2% to $22.69 after the world's largest producer of bullion reported a bigger quarterly profit reflecting higher gold prices and lower costs.
Teck Resources declined 3.8% to $27.07 after its profit missed expectations, although its revenue jumped due to higher prices for steelmaking coal and the miner raised its production forecast for the year.
The stock has risen steadily this year and hit its highest level since January 2014 on Tuesday.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $960 in August, up 0.8% from the previous month. Compared with 12 months earlier, weekly earnings increased 1.6%, partly as a result of relatively low earnings in August 2015.
Belgium agreed a deal with its regional parliaments on Thursday to approve a landmark European Union free trade agreement with Canada, breaking a deadlock that has blocked the pact for weeks.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange stayed positive 2.24 points to 777.63
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly split between gainers and losers Thursday morning, with energy soaring 2.8%, while information technology took on 0.6%, and industrials picked up 0.5%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by health-care and real-estate, each sinking 1.1%, while gold trudged lower 0.7%
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities traded mostly lower on Thursday as investors parsed through a fresh batch of corporate earnings results and economic data, while sovereign bonds around the world fell.
The Dow Jones Industrials recovered 28.9 points to 18,228.23, after spending most of the morning in the red, though a drop in Boeing’s prices put a lid on gains.
The S&P 500 recovered 1.23 at 2,140.66, with telecommunications leading advancers and real estate falling nearly 2.5% to lead decliners.
The NASDAQ composite index dropped 8.4 points to 5,241.87
On the earnings front, Colgate-Palmolive, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Ford and UPS are just a few of the companies that posted quarterly results before the bell. Alphabet, Amazon.com, LinkedIn and Baidu are among companies set to report after the bell.
Corporate earnings have done well relative to expectations. According to data from The Earnings Scout, 50% of S&P 500 components had posted results as of Thursday morning, with 73% beating earnings estimates and 61% topping sales expectations.
But despite the deluge of corporate results and economic data, U.S. stocks have largely stayed rangebound, with the S&P having fallen just 1.3% over the past three months, as of Wednesday's close.
In economic news, initial jobless claims fell 3,000 to 258,000, while durable goods for September unexpectedly fell. Pending home sales, meanwhile, rose 1.5% in September.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury slumped, hoisting yields to 1.85% from Wednesday’s 1.8%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices hiked 77 cents to $49.95 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices poked up $3.10 to $1,269.70 U.S. an ounce.
