Equities in Canada’s major market see-sawed at open on Thursday as gains in commodity-linked stocks offset losses in banks, amid investor angst over further monetary tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
The TSX picked up Thursday where it left off Wednesday, grabbing 68.38 points to begin the day’s trading at 20,414.91
The Canadian dollar recovered 0.21 cents to 72.67 cents U.S.
Among individual stocks, Panama's government and miner First Quantum Minerals agreed on the final text for a contract to operate a key copper mine. First Quantum shares shed 19 cents to $29.81.
Credit Suisse upgraded Nuvei Corp to "outperform" from "neutral". Nuvei shares shot ahead $4.16, or 8.3%, to $54.45.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 2.67 points to 627.90.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups started out positive, led by energy, up 2.5%, information technology, ahead 1.9%, and gold, 0.6% more solid.
The five laggards were weighed most by communications, down 0.7%, financials, off 0.4%, and consumer discretionary stocks, sliding 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose Thursday as traders processed comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and awaited key employment data that could heavily influence the central bank’s next rate decision.
The Dow Jones Industrials regrouped 60.83 points to open Thursday at 32,859.23.
The S&P 500 gained 9.17 points to 4,001.18.
The NASDAQ Composite acquired 48.23 points to 11,624.23.
Hilton Worldwide is now a better buying opportunity for investors than Hyatt Hotels, according to Barclays.
Bank of America analyst Brad Lin raised his price objective on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s U.S.-listed shares to $115 from $105. The new target implies upside of 26.6% from Wednesday’s close.
Investors received more news on the state of the labour market ahead of Friday’s closely watched nonfarm payrolls report. Jobless claims for the week ended March 4 rose more than expected, signaling that the labor market may be starting to slow. In retrospect, ADP’s payrolls report and JOLTs data on Wednesday suggested a resilient economy, heightening fears that the Fed needs more hiking to slow it.
Some economists, including those at Citi, expect a positive surprise to the upside come Friday’s payrolls data, following January’s blowout number. Strong jobs growth could mean bad news for the market, wrote strategist Alex Saunders in a Wednesday note to clients.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury climbed, lowering yields to 3.96% from Wednesday’s 3.98%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 79 cents to $77.45 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices picked up $18.20 to $1,836.80 U.S. an ounce.
