Canada's main stock index hit a record high on Wednesday as solid corporate earnings boosted financial shares, while tech stocks rose ahead of Nvidia and Salesforce's results.
The TSX added 230.11 points to break for lunch Wednesday at 34,200.49.
The Canadian dollar climbed 0.09 cents at 73.07 cents U.S.
Automotive fleet manager Element Fleet Management reported fourth-quarter profit marginally lower than estimates in aftermarket earnings. Shares in Element Fleet doffed $1.52. or 4.4%, to $32.94.
Investors will keep an eye on Bank of Montreal and National Bank of Canada, which will report their earnings before the bell. Shares in the “First Canadian Bank” gained $4.74, or 4.5%, to $203.76.
National shares captured $11.70, or 6.7%, to $189.26.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 19.67 points, or 1.9%, to 1,084.97.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher midday, with information technology ahead 2%, financials richer by 1.6%, and gold brighter 1.4%.
The five laggards were weighed most by consumer staples, down 2.2%, consumer discretionary and energy each down 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities rose on Wednesday, supported by Nvidia and Oracle, as stocks look to build on the gains from the prior trading day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 239.07 points to 49,413.57
The S&P 500 index gained 49.37 points to 6,939.44.
The NASDAQ flew 262.46 points, or 1.2%, to 23,126.19.
Nvidia was up 2% ahead of its earnings report, which is scheduled to be released after the bell along with results from software giant Salesforce and Snowflake. Nvidia’s report comes at a time when investors are recalibrating lofty tech stock valuations and growing skeptical on hyperscalers’ high AI capital expenditures.
Nvidia’s report comes at a time when investors are recalibrating lofty tech stock valuations and growing skeptical on hyperscalers’ high AI capital expenditures.
Fellow artificial intelligence player Oracle jumped more than 4%, leading the continued bounce in software stocks, after the name was upgraded at Oppenheimer, which sees a “favorable” risk-reward profile in the wake of its recent pullback.
Software and cybersecurity stocks also saw a relief rally in the regular session after Anthropic launched a new connectors and plugins for its knowledge worker tool, Claude Cowork, that will allow companies to connect the AI tool to their existing apps such as Google Drive. Claude
Cowork rattled the software sector in recent weeks as investors feared the tool would disrupt incumbent software vendors’ businesses.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury inched up, lowering yields to Tuesday’s 4.04%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped 14 cents to $65.49 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices shone brighter $59.80 to $5,236.10 U.S. an ounce.
