The Toronto stock market advanced after two days of punishing losses sparked by the ongoing collapse in oil prices and worries about the fallout from such a decline.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 120.9 points, or 0.85 per cent, to 14,367.62.
The Canadian dollar was lower as data showed that falling oil exports during November helped create a bigger merchandise trade deficit. It came in at $644-million in November, up from a revised $327-million deficit in October – compared with a small surplus initially reported. The loonie was down 0.17 of a cent to 84.38 cents (U.S.).
U.S. indexes were in the positive column after also ushering in 2015 trading with big declines as the Dow Jones industrials gained 151.5 points, or 0.87 per cent, to 17,523.19, the Nasdaq was ahead 41.39 points, or 0.90 per cent, to 4,634.13 while the S&P 500 index was up 17.83 points to 2,020.44.
The TSX energy sector was up 1.5 per cent while oil prices stabilized for the moment with the February crude contract in New York ahead 25 cents to $48.18 (U.S.) after diving to as low as $46.83 earlier in the morning. Prices had tumbled $5 over the last two days alone, adding up to a 55 per cent plunge in prices since the highs of last June.
Markets are dealing with an over abundance of supply, made worse by OPEC's refusal to cut production to support prices. But lower demand is also pressuring prices and there are worries that this reflects increasing weakness in the global economy.
Uncertainty about oil helped push the TSX down more than 500 points over the last two sessions while the Dow plunged about 450 points.
Most sectors were higher with industrials up 0.75 per cent and financials ahead 0.6 per cent.
The gold sector was the leading decliner, down 1.9 per cent as gold prices backed off after charging ahead for the last three sessions as investors shunned riskier assets. The February contract faded $7.10 to $1,212.20 (U.S.) an ounce.
The base metals group dipped 0.1 per cent as March copper drifted a penny lower to $2.76 a pound.
Meanwhile, investors are focused on U.S. economic developments. Two days before the release of the government's employment report for December, payroll firm ADP reported that the private sector created 241,000 jobs last month. Economists expect that a total of 240,000 jobs were created, down from 321,000 in November.
Investors also focused on the U.S. Federal Reserve as the minutes from the central bank's latest meeting last month will be released mid-afternoon. After last month's meeting, the Fed said it will be "patient" in deciding when to raise interest rates. The Fed is expected to this year raise interest rates for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.
And in corporate news, Air Canada says that passenger traffic was up 8.5 per cent last year compared with 2013. Its 2014 load factor, measuring how much of capacity was used, was 83.4 per cent, up 0.6 points from 82.8 per cent in 2013. In December, Air Canada's traffic was up 8.3 per cent from a year before, with 4.99 billion revenue passenger miles, while capacity grew by 8.5 per cent to 6.04 billion available seat miles. The load factor in December was 82.6 per cent — down marginally from 82.7 per cent a year earlier and its shares gained 25 cents to $12 (Canadian).