Stocks in Toronto rode on the shoulders of their American cousins Thursday, as investors breathed a sigh of relief that runaway inflation may soon be a thing of the past in both Canada and the U.S.
The TSX jumped 186.15 points to wind up Thursday’s trading at 20,211.20
The Canadian dollar muscled up 0.41 cents at 74.87 cents U.S.
Health-care issues led the parade upward, with Tilray jumping 32 cents, or 7.9%, to $4.78, while Bellus Health up 50 cents, or 5.1%, to $10.39.
In energy plays, Advantage Oil and Gas climbed 52 cents, or 6.2%, to $8.98, while Meg Energy acquired $1.08 or 6%, to $19.24.
Materials also put their best feet forward, with K92 Mining ahead 48 cents, or 5.8%, to $8.75, while Algoma Steel was better by 26 cents, or 3.1%, to $8.54.
Consumer stocks put a brake on further gains, with Aritzia skidding $5.74, while 11.2%, to $45.48, while Uni-Select weakened $1.20, or 2.9%, to $40.62.
Empire Company fell 75 cents, or 2.1%, to $35.51, while George Weston faded $2.80, or 1.6%, to $171.59.
Industrials also suffered with Cargojet grounded $4.55, or 3.6%, to $121.93, while Waste Connections slipped $6.41, or 3.6%, to $171.01.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange roared ahead 7.49 points, or 1.2%, to close Thursday at 609.88.
All but three of the 12 subgroups were in the “plus” column, with health-care climbing 3.4%, energy, up 2.9%, and materials, surging 1.4%.
The three laggards were consumer discretionary and consumer staples, each down 0.6%, while while industrials slid 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks closed higher Thursday after December’s consumer price report showed inflation cooled for the month, raising hopes the Federal Reserve can once again slow interest rate hikes.
The Dow Jones Industrials leaped 216.96 points to close Thursday’s session at 34,189,97
The S&P 500 strode 13.56 points to 3,983,17.
The NASDAQ Composite Index gained 69.43 points to 11,001.11, marking a five-day winning streak. That’s the first rally of that length the technology-heavy index has seen since July.
The NASDAQ is on pace for the biggest weekly increase of the three indexes, gaining 4.1% so far as investors picked up beaten-down growth stocks ahead of the CPI report. The S&P 500 is set to add 2.3% on the week, and Dow is poised for weekly advance of roughly 1.7%.
Bed Bath & Beyond jumped more than 60% Thursday as meme stocks remain a focus of investors looking to short this week.
Retail traders unloaded $746 million worth of Tesla shares over the past week, bringing the total outflow over the last three weeks to $2.1 billion, according to data from JPMorgan.
Big banks including JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo are set to report quarterly earnings Friday. Delta Air Lines is also slated to report.
Among the banks reporting tomorrow, Citigroup is the day’s best performing stock, adding 1.1%. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are all up less than 1%.
The December report showed a 0.1% dip in prices from November but was still 6.5% higher than a year prior. In November, the report showed a 0.1% monthly gain and an annual pace of 7.1%, according to Dow Jones.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained sharply, lowering yields to 3.44% from Wednesday’s 3.53%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices advanced 88 cents to $78.29 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices prospered $23.20 to $1,902.10 U.S. an ounce.