Stocks Content with Small Gains Thursday - InvestingChannel

Stocks Content with Small Gains Thursday

Equity markets in Toronto enjoyed moderate gains before Thursday’s closing bell as strength in health-care and energy offset lower consumer staple prices.

The TSX Composite Index gained 32.06 points to conclude Thursday’s session at 17,064.04

The Canadian dollar was up 0.05 cents to 76.2 cents U.S.

Health-care issues led the festivities, with HEXO hiking 14 cents, or 5.5%, to $2.56, while Aurora Cannabis popped 15 cents, or 5.3%, to $3.00.

In energy, Crescent Point added 29 cents, or 5.5%, to $5.52, while MEG Energy accumulated 32 cents, or 4.5%, to $7.39.

In tech issues, Constellation Software soared $59.77, or 4.8%, to $1,259, 24, while Celestica triumphed 33 cents, or 3% to $11.18.

Consumer staples concerns lost some of their mojo, particularly Loblaw Companies, down $1.08, or 1.6%, to $67.70, while Saputo slumped 32 cents to $39.79.

In industrials, Richelieu Hardware slid 77 cents, or 2.8%, to $27.07.

Utilities took their lumps as well, as AltaGas dropped 33 cents, or 1.7%, to $19.65.

On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported wholesale sales declined 1.1% to $64.2 billion in October, the second decrease in five months.

Also, the average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $1,042 in October, little changed from September. Compared with October 2018, earnings grew 3.3%.

ON BAYSTREET

The TSX Venture Exchange amassed 5.93 points to 544.64

Seven of the 12 subgroups were higher, with health-care better by 2.7%, energy surging 1.7%, and information technology 1.2% brighter.

The five laggards were weighed most by consumer staples, down 0.4%, industrials, sinking 0.3%, and utilities, off 0.2%.

ON WALLSTREET

Stocks rose to all-time highs on Thursday as investors looked past the news of President Donald Trump’s impeachment by the House as well as mixed U.S. economic data.

The Dow Jones Industrials leaped 137.68 points to close Thursday at 28,376.96

The S&P 500 gathered 14.23 points to 3,205.37

The NASDAQ added 59.48 points to Wednesday’s all-time record, at 8,887.22

The Democrat-led House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump became only the third president to be charged with high crimes and misdemeanors and will now face a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The S&P 500 is up nearly 7% since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched a formal impeachment inquiry in September. During President Bill Clinton’s impeachment process in the late 1990s, the broad index surged more than 26%.

Cisco Systems and 3M were the best-performing Dow components, rising more than 1.5% each. The real estate sector gained 1.1%, and consumer staples picked up 0.8%, to lead the S&P 500 higher.

Gains of 2.8% in Micron Technology shares also contributed to Thursday’s move higher, on the back of strong quarterly results, Conagra shares surged more than 15% and posted their biggest one-day gain since Nov. 5, 1984.

On the economic data front, weekly jobless claims fell to 234,000 from 252,000 the week before. However, economists expected claims to fall to 225,000.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s business conditions index fell to 0.3 in December from 10.4 in the previous month. Economists expected the index to slip to 8.

Prices for the 10-Year U.S. Treasury gained back lost ground, lowering yields to 1.92% from Wednesday’s 1.93%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices gained 37 cents to $61.30 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices moved forward $4.30 at $1,483.00 U.S. an ounce.