Canada's main stock index rose on Wednesday, amid broad-based gains led by healthcare and consumer shares, even as investors reflected on Donald Trump's recent tariff threats and parsed U.S. economic data.
The TSX hiked 90.51 points, to stride toward noon EST Wednesday at 25,495.65
The Canadian dollar was up 0.13 cents at 71.28 cents U.S.
Leading the index were Orla Mining, up 31 cents, or 4.9%, to $6.60 Aya Gold & Silver, up 53 cents, or 4%, to $13.82, and New Gold, up by 11 cents, or 2.9%, to $3.90.
In corporate news, Brookfield is reportedly planning to drop its plan to take over Spain's Grifols. Brookfield shares gained 77 cents to $85.24.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 5.1 points to 604.88.
All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups were in the green, led by consumer staples, up 1.5%, utilities, advancing 1.2%, and health-care, better 1.1%.
The two laggards were information technology, slumping 0.4%, and gold, duller by 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Indexes fell in light trading on Wednesday as investors took some risk off the table following big November gains.
The Dow Jones Industrials dipped 25.14 points to 44,835.17
The much-broader index subtracted 28.36 points to 5,993.27.
The NASDAQ Composite dumped 202.61 points to 18,972.96.
Traders appeared to take profits on big technology names that have largely performed well this year, which can explain the Nasdaq’s underperformance. Nvidia, which has surged more than 160% in 2024, lost more than 3% in the session. Meta Platforms slid about 1% after rallying around 60% this year.
Elsewhere in tech, Dell and HP both dropped more than 12% after providing weak earnings guidance.
Still, it’s been a notable week as the Dow and S&P 500 rose to all-time highs. The Dow is now tracking to end the week 1.4% higher, while the S&P 500 is slated for gains of 0.4%. Following Wednesday’s slide, the NASDAQ Composite is down about 0.2% on the week.
Investors followed the latest reading of the personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE, released Wednesday morning. The closely watched inflation gauge rose 0.2% in October and 2.3% on an annualized basis, in line with expectations from economists polled by Dow Jones. Excluding food and energy, the so-called core measure increased 0.3% month over month and 2.8% compared with a year ago, also matching consensus forecasts.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury jumped, lowering yields to 4.25% from Tuesday’s 4.30%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices recovered five cents to $68.82 U.S. a barrel.
Prices for gold perked $22.40 an ounce to $2,668.70 U.S.
