Canada’s main stock index rose on Thursday as technology and mining shares gained, while the investors celebrated the strong U.S. economic data that made a better case for a soft landing.
The TSX Composite Index thundered 177.36 points to move into Thursday afternoon at 23,304.34.
The Canadian dollar was unchanged at 74.20 cents U.S.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s rose 5.7% to a two-year high after the lender beat third-quarter profit estimates, boosting the financial sector, which has 29% weighting on the index, by 0.9%. CIBC shares shot higher $4.06, or 5.5%, to $77.56.
Canada’s information technology led the sectoral gains, supported by a rally of $1.65, or 2.5%, in Celestica to $69.05.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported the number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer—measured as “payroll employment” in the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours—decreased by 47,300 (-0.3%) in June.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange inched higher 1.26 points to 566.98.
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were positive, with gold up 1.7%, information technology vaulting 1.6%, and materials better by 1.1%.
The three laggards were utilities and real-estate, each down 0.3%, while communications hesitated 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose Thursday, as investors looked to recover from declines seen in the previous session. Wall Street also weighed post earnings moves from Nvidia and Salesforce.
The Dow Jones Industrials galloped 300.82 points to stop for lunch Thursday at 41,392.24.
The S&P 500 regained 41.32 points to 5,633.50.
The tech-heavy NASDAQ gained 196.97 points, or 1.1%, to 17,753.
Nvidia was down 3% after posting its latest earnings Wednesday afternoon. In its fiscal second quarter, the AI chipmaker exceeded expectations on the top and bottom lines, and issued a rosy current-quarter sales outlook.
That decline was offset by a pop in Salesforce earlier in the day. Shares traded higher in the morning after the business software giant beat fiscal second-quarter estimates and raised its full-year profit outlook, although the stock was last trading 0.6% down.
Economic data released Thursday lent support to the stock market. Weekly jobless claims fell from the prior week, further easing recession concerns. In addition, second-quarter gross domestic product was revised higher to 3% growth from an initial 2.8% rate.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury inched lower, raising yields to 3.88% from Wednesday’s 3.84%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regained $1.78 to $76.30 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices hiked $14.70 to $2,552.50.
