All the news this week seemed to be bad on Bay Street, but equities found a way Friday out of the abyss and boasted serious gains by the final bell.
The S&P/TSX popped 400.76 points, or 2%, to end the week on an up note, at 20,099.81. Even so, on the week, the index was bruised 533 points, or 2.59%.
The Canadian dollar regained 0.59 cents at 77.37 cents U.S.
Tech issues were monarchs of the index, with Lightspeed Communications streaking $6.55, or 31.1%, to $27.59, while Dye & Durham leaped $2.13, or 14.2%, to $17.02.
Hopeful news also in the cannabis sector, where Aurora Cannabis acquired 50 cents, or 15.9%, to $3.65, while Canopy Growth moved up the chain 69 cents, or 9.9%, to $7.67.
In energy, Headwater Exploration hiked 72 cents, or 11.4%, to $7.05, while Nuvista zoomed 90 cents, or 8.2%, to $11.92.
Strategists are saying as Canada's economy overheats, the Bank of Canada is likely to be among the first of the major central banks to lift
interest rates to a more normal setting even as worries persist about record-high levels of household debt.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange leaped 29.4 points, or 4.4%, to 696.65, but with a weekly loss of 73 points, or 9.5%.
All 12 TSX subgroups were in the green, with information technology rising 6.2%, health-care haler by 4.7%, and energy rumbling 4%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks jumped Friday, as investors looked to steer the S&P 500 away from official bear market territory and bounce back from a week of sharp losses.
The Dow Jones Industrials climbed 466.36 points, or 1.5%, to finish Friday and the week at 32,196.66, breaking a six-day losing streak
The S&P 500 restocked 93.81 points, or 2.4%, to 4,023.89.
The NASDAQ Composite spiked 434.04 points, or 3.8%, to 11,805.
Despite those gains, the major averages were on track to post losses for the week. The Dow is down more than 2% and currently on pace for its first seven-week losing streak since 2001.
The S&P 500 has fallen 2.5% and is on course for its longest weekly losing streak since 2011, while the Nasdaq has slipped about 3% this week.
All the S&P 500 sectors moved higher on Friday led by gains in consumer discretionary and information technology. It was a broad-based comeback with about 93% of the S&P 500 in the green.
American Express, Nike and Salesforce rose more than 3% each, leading the Dow higher.
Beaten-up tech stocks also made a comeback/ Meta Platforms and Alphabet added 3%, while Tesla jumped 5.4%.
Semiconductors Nvidia and AMD also popped 9% as Apple rose 3% after becoming the last Big Tech name to fall into its own bear market on Thursday.
Following strong gains on Thursday, heavily shorted meme stocks AMC Entertainment and GameStop jumped 5% and 7.7%, respectively.
Meanwhile, Twitter shares plunged 10.9% after Elon Musk announced a standstill in the takeover deal as he awaits more details on the platform’s fake accounts. In other news, Robinhood popped 24.8% after crypto CEO Sam Bankman-Fried acquired a stake in the company.
On the earnings front, Affirm shares soared 28% on the back of a better-than-expected earnings report.
The stock market has been slumping for months, starting with high-growth unprofitable tech stocks late last year and spreading to even companies with healthy cash flows stocks in recent weeks.
The decline has wiped much of the rapid gains stocks enjoyed off their pandemic lows in March 2020.
Treasury prices slid, raising yields to 2.94% from Thursday’s 2.86%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices strengthened $4.25 at $110.38 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices tumbled $16.80 to $1,807.80.10 U.S. an ounce.
