Equities in Canada’s largest centre were unchanged at the open on Thursday, though declines in energy stocks were noticeable as oil prices dipped after the United States eased sanctions on Venezuela, while rate-sensitive real estate stocks fell on a rise in U.S. bond yields.
The TSX Composite inched higher 7.7 points to open Thursday at 19,458.40
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.11 cents at 72.90 cents U.S.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada’s industrial product price index rose 0.4% month over month in September, following a 1.9% month-over-month increase in August, while its raw materials price index increased 3.5% in the same month.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange nosed up 1.23 points to kick off the session at 527.07.
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly divided between gainers and losers, as health-care stocks took on 0.5%, industrials strengthened 0.3%, and financials were richer 0.1%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by gold and materials, each down 0.4%. and real-estate, which fell 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 was little moved on Thursday as Wall Street monitored a key mark for a closely followed bond yield and awaited commentary from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
The Dow Jones Industrials shed 49.32 points to open Thursday at 33,615.76.
The much broader index moved higher 5.6 points to 4,320.20.
The NASDAQ index regained 57.28 points to 13,571.58.
Investors also parsed the latest earnings reports. More than 15% of companies in the S&P 500 have already reported this earnings season, and of those, more than 74% have surpassed Wall Street expectations.
Electric vehicle juggernaut Tesla slid more than 5% after the company missed analyst expectations on earnings and revenue in the third quarter. CEO Elon Musk also warned that the company’s Cybertruck will not produce much positive cash flow more than a year after production starts.
Netflix shares, meanwhile, jumped more than 14% after the streaming giant posted third-quarter earnings that beat estimates. The company got a boost from strong ad-tier subscriptions.
Beyond technology stocks, AT&T climbed more than 6% after beating expectations for the third quarter, while investment firm Blackstone slid 4% on a weaker-than-expected report.
Traders will monitor remarks at noon ET from Powell for insights into the path of interest rates. Even as inflation numbers have been showing signs of improvement, Treasury yields’ continued climb has raised questions on how the central bank may proceed on monetary policy.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury sagged, raising yields to 4.94% from Wednesday’s 4.91%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices wilted 79 cents to $87.53 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices faded $2.60 to $1,965.70.