Equity markets in Canada’s largest centre recouped some losses on Friday as energy shares rose on strength in crude prices, but the Toronto shares benchmark was still set for a weekly decline as fears of a sharp economic slowdown have weighed on financial and commodity stocks.
The S&P/TSX recovered 39.16 points to open the week’s last session at 18,368.22.
The Canadian dollar recounted 0.31 cents to 76.59 cents U.S.
Chile’s Supreme Court on Thursday ratified the definitive closure of Barrick Gold’s controversial $8.5-billion Pascua Lama gold and copper mining project, previously ordered to shutter by the country’s environmental regulator in 2018.
Shares in the world’s biggest gold company dropped 36 cents, or 1.7%, to $20.31.
Economically speaking, wholesale sales rose 1.6% in May to $81.1 billion, mostly due to higher sales in the food, beverage and tobacco subsector and the machinery, equipment and supplies subsector.
Statistics Canada also said cross-border transactions in Canadian and foreign securities slowed considerably in May. Foreign investors acquired $2.3 billion of Canadian securities, the lowest investment since January 2021.
The agency added Canadian investors added $573 million of foreign securities to their holdings, after a record-high $29.2 billion investment in April 2022.
Finally, home sales recorded over Canadian MLS Systems fell by 5.6% between in June, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eked up 0.62 points in the first hour of trading to 586.70.
Seven of 12 TSX subgroups were positive, with energy gushing 1.5%, information technology better by 0.7%, and consumer discretionary issues up 0.5%.
The five laggards were weighed by health-care, waning 3.4%, gold, down 1.7% and materials, off 0.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks jumped on Friday as traders digested a fresh batch of bank earnings and retail sales for June that came in ahead of expectations.
The Dow Jones Industrials leaped 449.75 points, or 1.5%, to 31,079.92.
The S&P 500 regained 46.5 points, or 1.2%, to 3,836.88.
The NASDAQ Composite climbed 100.96 points to 11,352,15.
For the week, the Dow is down 1%, while the S&P has slipped 1.6% and the NASDAQ is down 2.3%.
A new round of bank results from Wells Fargo and Citigroup offered further insight into the state of the economy. Wells Fargo rose 2.8% even as quarterly profits declined 48% and the bank set aside funds for bad loans.
Citigroup jumped 5.2% as it beat estimates and benefited from a rising rate environment.
A day earlier, investors combed through troubling reports from JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, which kicked off major bank earnings, and also weighed the likelihood of larger interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and looming recession concerns.
In corporate news, Pinterest shares surged 14.7% following a Wall Street Journal report that said activist investor Elliott Management took a stake of more than 9% in the social media company.
June retail sales came in ahead of expectations on Friday, rising 1% on a monthly basis and ahead of Dow Jones’ estimate of 0.9% and indicating that consumers are bolstering retail spending even as inflation hits record highs. Preliminary consumer sentiment data also came in ahead of expectations.
Treasury prices gained, lowering yields to 2.93% from Thursday’s 2.96%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices picked up $1.37 to $97.15 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices fell $5.80 to $1,700.00 U.S. an ounce.
Investors Hail Bank Profits, Indexes Shoot Higher