Equities in Canada’s largest market opened higher on Tuesday as a rise in gold and crude prices boosted material and energy stocks, with investor focus now on the Bank of Canada policy meeting later this week.
The TSX Composite Index reclaimed 111.81 points to kick off Tuesday trading at 21,902.30.
The Canadian dollar recovered 0.2 cents to 79.30 cents U.S.
JP Morgan raised the target price on Cenovus Energy to $30.00 from $29.00.
Cenovus shares triumphed 88 cents, or 4.2%, to $21.71.
JP Morgan cut the target price on Air Canada to $29.00 from $31.00. Shares in the “Maple Leaf Airline” “took off” 25 cents, or 1.1%, to $22.51.
Ontario’s chief medical officer of health says the province is in the sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The wave is driven by the highly transmissible BA.2 sub-variant of the Omicron coronavirus and hospitalizations are likely to rise over the coming weeks.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 7.73 points to 884.06.
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups were pointed upward in the first hour, led by energy, powering ahead 2.5%, consumer discretionary stocks, better 0.9%, and materials, ahead 0.8%.
The lone naysayer was in utilities, off 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as the March consumer prices report showed inflation excluding volatile food and energy costs was slightly less than expected. A drop in rates helped boost stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrials raced 237.28 points to start Tuesday at 34,545.36.
The S&P 500 jumped 47.63 points, or 1.1%, to 4,460.16
The NASDAQ Composite re-attached 265.96 points, or 2%, to 13,677.91.
Tech stocks rallied following the consumer prices report. Microsoft jumped 1.4%. Chip stock Nvidia popped 3.7%, Qualcomm jumped 2.7% and Broadcom rallied 2.5%. Tesla rallied 2.9%.
Energy stocks followed oil prices upward. Devon Energy jumped 4.6%, Marathon Oil popped 4.4%, Chevron spiked 3.8%.
Consumer prices for March increased 1.2% month-to-month and 8.5% annually, the Labor Department said on Tuesday. But traders were focusing on the core reading, which excludes food and energy prices.
Core CPI in March increased 0.3%, below the consensus economist estimate from Dow Jones of 0.5%. Core prices on an annual basis were up 6.5%.
Treasury prices gained ground, putting yields back down to 2.71%, from Monday’s 2.77%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regained $4.97 to $99.26 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices jumped $19.00 to $1,967.20 U.S. an ounce.