Canada’s main stock index hovered near its six-week high on Monday, led by financial and industrial shares, after an outage halted trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday.
At 11:30 a.m. ET, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 4.60 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 15,673.53.
TMX Group Ltd, which operates the Toronto Stock Exchange and smaller Canadian trading platforms, said in a statement on Saturday that the failure of data storage equipment caused the outage.
Shares of TMX Group Ltd were down 2.1 per cent.
Shares of Toronto-Dominion Bank were up around 0.4 per cent, providing a boost to the financial index.
Also helping the main index was the industrials group, boosted by Air Canada, which gained 2.2 per cent after reporting a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss.
The materials index was dragged down by lower gold prices, sitting 0.9 per cent lower.
Gold fell to its lowest in nearly six weeks as the dollar strengthened, while easing tensions on the Korean peninsula helped boost appetite for assets seen as higher risk.
Shares of TransCanada Corp fell 0.6 per cent after the company reported first-quarter results on Friday.
Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. declined 0.5 per cent after Toys “R” Us (Canada) Ltd on Friday received U.S. and Canadian court approval to sell itself to the company.
A burst of corporate deals and strong earnings reports helped nudge U.S. stock indexes higher Monday. If the gains hold, it will be the fourth straight increase for the S&P 500, marking the longest winning streak in more than two months.
The S&P 500 rose 3 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 2,673, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 112, or 0.5 per cent, to 24,423, and the Nasdaq composite added 6, or 0.1 per cent, to 7,125.
Andeavor jumped to the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after Marathon Petroleum said it will buy the refiner and pipeline owner for more than $23 billion. Andeavor, which used to be called Tesoro, soared 14.8 per cent to $140.51.
McDonald’s jumped 5.1 per cent to $166.40 after it reported healthier profit and revenue than analysts expected for the first three months of the year. Sales at its restaurants open more than a year were much stronger than Wall Street had forecast.
McDonald’s joined the wave of companies to report not only big earnings growth for the first quarter, but bigger than analysts expected. Just over half the companies in the S&P 500 have reported their earnings for the first three months of the year, and they’re on pace to deliver overall growth of 23 per cent, according to FactSet. That would be the strongest showing since the summer of 2010.
“It’s been phenomenal,” said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors. “Corporate earnings are doing better. Economic growth is doing better, and I think the market is begrudgingly allowing those numbers to work their way into share prices.”
The S&P 500 has been whipping higher and lower in recent months, hurt by worries about higher interest rates and the possibility of a trade war. But the index is up 3.7 per cent since setting a low in early April and is on pace to close out its first winning month in the last three.
Sprint and T-Mobile US fell in the first day of trading after the companies announced a $26.5-billion deal to merge. The pair have been considering a combination for years, but investors are unsure whether this attempt will get the necessary approvals from U.S. regulators.
Sprint dropped 13.3 per cent to $5.64, and T-Mobile lost 6 per cent to $60.63.
U.K. grocer Sainsubry’s agreed to buy Walmart’s U.K. unit, Asda, for 7.3 billion pounds ($10.1 billion) in cash and stock. The deal would create Britain’s largest supermarket chain. Walmart rose 2.1 per cent to $89.16.
Besides being the heart of earnings reporting season for companies, this week will also feature a policy meeting for the Federal Reserve on interest rates. The Fed will announce its decision on Wednesday.
Prices for U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note dipped to 2.94 per cent from 2.96 per cent late Friday. The two-year yield inched up to 2.49 per cent from 2.48 per cent, and the 30-year yield dipped to 3.11 per cent from 3.13 per cent.
In Europe, France’s CAC 40 rose 0.6 per cent, and Germany’s DAX gained 0.2 per cent. The FTSE 100 in London was up 0.2 per cent. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 1.7 per cent, and South Korea’s Kospi added 0.9 per cent. Markets in Japan were closed for holidays.
Oil steadied on Monday, paring early losses after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would make an announcement later in the day about the nuclear deal with Iran.
Brent prices have gained around 6 per cent this month, buoyed by expectations the United States will renew sanctions against Iran, which is the third-largest producer within OPEC.
U.S. President Donald Trump has until May 12 to decide whether to restore the sanctions on Iran that were lifted after an agreement over its disputed nuclear program.
Brent crude futures were last down 2 cents at $74.62 a barrel, up from a session low of $73.47.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were last down 9 cents on the day at $68.01 a barrel, having recovered from an intraday low of $67.17.
Reuters and The Associated Press