Canada's main stock index remained higher by noon EDT on Wednesday, as higher commodity prices lifted miners and energy stocks, while investors assessed developments in the U.S.-Iran conflict and new U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports.
The TSX stayed afloat 210.63 points to stop for lunch Wednesday at 35,579.71
The Canadian dollar regained 0.10 cents to 70.99 cents U.S.
Among major stocks, Montage Gold picked $1.55, or 10.1%, to $16,94, while Aya Gold & Silver hiked $2.14, or 7.9%, to $29.25.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange grabbed 17.23 points, or 2%, to 890.30.
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly split, with gold soaring 4.3%, materials mightier by 3.4%, and energy up 1.3%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by information technology, sinking 2.2%, health-care, off 0.7%, and real-estate, lower 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 was relatively unchanged on Wednesday, pressured by a rise in oil prices, as investors looked ahead to another busy day of corporate earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrials held onto gains of 149.28 points to 52,373.92.
The much broader index progressed 7.81 points to 7,517.01.
The NASDAQ Composite dropped 27.11 points to 25,810.09.
Earnings take center stage again on Wednesday, with reports due from ServiceNow, International Business Machines, Tesla, Texas Instruments and Alphabet.
Shares of Super Micro Computer jumped 24% on the heels of the server maker forecasting higher margins than expected for the fiscal fourth quarter, with the company saying that it received more than $60 billion in new orders in the period.
AT&T shares also saw gains, rising 3% following the telecommunications company’s better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter.
Conversely, shares of GE Vernova dropped 5% after the company’s second-quarter earnings missed expectations.
Investors will be watching closely for updates on AI spending, cloud demand, corporate technology budgets and the outlook for the second half of the year.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury backpedaled, raising yields to 4.65% from Tuesday’s 4.63%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $2.37 to $86.71 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices zoomed $86.90 to $4,160.70 U.S. an ounce.
