Equities in Canada’s largest centre opened higher on Wednesday, led by mining shares as gold prices extended gains amid broader geopolitical uncertainty that pushed investors toward the safe-haven metal.
The TSX gained another 82.6 points to begin the mid-week session at 32,471.20.
The Canadian dollar scaled back 0.12 cents at 73.19 cents U.S.
Suncor Energy beat fourth-quarter profit estimates on Tuesday as higher production helped offset the impact of weak commodity prices.
Suncor shares kicked off Wednesday by gaining $2.01, or 2.8%, to $74.86.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange acquired 4.39 points to 1,057.11.
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher first thing Wednesday morning, led by gold, up 1.5%, while energy and real-estate each grew 1.2%.
Only information technology moved backward, and 4.1% at that.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 fell on Wednesday as traders continued to move out of technology stocks and digested the latest labor market data.
The Dow Jones Industrials revived 280.71 points to 49,621.70.
The much broader index sagged 5.58 points to 6,911.93.
The NASDAQ stumbled 162.67 points to 23,092.52.
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices pulled back 14% after its first-quarter forecast underwhelmed some analysts, adding to the recent pressure seen in tech. Other names in the space such as Broadcom and Micron Technology dipped as well. The former was down 2%, while the latter fell 3%.
Software stocks also continued to face pressure, with stocks such as Oracle and CrowdStrike extending their losses from the prior trading day. Oracle shed around 5%, while CrowdStrike lost roughly 4%, as did ServiceNow and Salesforce
Amgen was among the names leading the Dow’s outperformance. The biotechnology stock was higher by 3% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter. Also offering a boost to the index, industrial stock Caterpillar gained 2%, signaling that investors were continuing to rotate into more value-oriented names.
Meanwhile, ADP on Wednesday released its monthly look at private payroll growth for January, which showed an increase of just 22,000 on the month. That’s below the gain of 45,000 jobs that economists polled by Dow Jones had forecast.
The release generally precedes the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on nonfarm payrolls, but that won’t be out this week due to the partial government shutdown. The shutdown, which began Saturday, officially ended Tuesday, when President Donald Trump signed a funding bill into law.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury sank, raising yields to 4.28% from Tuesday’s 4.27%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 18 cents to $63.39 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices leaped $79.30 to $5,014.30 U.S. an ounce.
