A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at the opening bell in New York, on April 20.TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images
Canada’s main stock index ended slightly higher on Monday as data showed the rate of inflation increasing less than expected, with gains for energy and technology offsetting declines for metal mining shares.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 13.74 points, or 0.04 per cent, at 34,289.88 points, edging closer to the record closing high it posted on March 2.
Canada’s annual inflation rate rose to 2.4 per cent in March from 1.8 per cent in February as higher crude oil costs drove up gasoline prices, but the rate was below the 2.6 per cent level that analysts had forecast.
“Canada’s inflation came in a bit cooler than expected, which was good news, especially when you strip out gasoline, which is a big driver of inflation in Canada,” said Michael Dehal, a senior portfolio manager at Dehal Investment Partners at Raymond James.
Investors have worried that hotter inflation due to the oil price shock would lead the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates this year.
The price of oil settled 6.9 per cent higher at $89.61 a barrel on uncertainty over peace talks between the U.S. and Iran, which helped lift the energy sector by 0.8 per cent.
Technology was up 1.6 per cent, with shares of BlackBerry Ltd jumping 13.1 per cent, adding to sharp gains this month. Three of the 10 major sectors lost ground, including materials , which includes metal mining shares. It was down 1.4 per cent as gold prices fell.
Agnico Eagle Mines said it will acquire Rupert Resources and Aurion Resources, and buy a majority stake in a joint venture from B2Gold, as it moves to consolidate a key gold district in northern Finland. Shares of Agnico Eagle ended 1.9 per cent lower.
U.S. stocks closed slightly lower on Monday, with each of the three major indexes coming off a third straight week of gains, as renewed U.S.-Iran tensions put the durability of a two-week ceasefire in doubt.
Iran is considering attending peace talks with the U.S. in Pakistan, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, following moves by Islamabad to end a U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports.
However, a separate source said Vice President JD Vance was still in the U.S., denying reports he was on his way to Pakistan for talks.
Iran opened the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, fueling a broad market surge, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posting record highs for a third straight session for their biggest weekly gains in 11 months. However, Tehran closed the crucial shipping waterway again over the weekend.
U.S. crude jumped 6.87 per cent to settle at US$89.61 a barrel and Brent rose to settle at US$95.48 per barrel, up 5.64 per cent on the day, lifting the S&P 500 energy index as one of the better-performing of the 11 S&P 500 sectors on the session.
“The news over the weekend with the re-closure of the strait or the boarding of the Iran vessel, that gets us a little away from it’s fully reopened, but the timing doesn’t look like it’s still that far off as it was with at least talks over the week,” said Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.
“But you’re in the middle of first-quarter earnings season too, so then the question is, has there been any bleed over into the real economy, and so far you’ve heard from the banks that consumer credit looks okay and their spending looks okay.”
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 15.84 points, or 0.22 per cent, to end at 7,110.22 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 60.48 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 24,408.00. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.19 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 49,445.24.
Communication services was the worst-performing sector, as Meta was down more than 2 per cent to snap a nine-session winning streak, its longest since October.
Netflix also fell to weigh on the sector, and has fallen about 12 per cent since announcing its quarterly results and the departure of co-founder Reed Hastings last week.
The CBOE Volatility Index, known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” gained after falling for the past eight sessions and was last up 1.57 points at 19.08, after reaching a one-week high of 19.99.
Investors will look to assess the impact of the Iran war on corporate results and on the broader economy, with companies including Lockheed Martin and IBM scheduled to report later this week.
Tesla will kick off results from the so-called “Magnificent Seven” group of megacap stocks on Wednesday.
Of the 48 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings through Friday morning, 87.5 per cent have topped analyst expectations, according to LSEG data. The current first-quarter earnings growth rate stands at 14.4 per cent.
Among other movers, QXO shares slumped after the construction supplies distributor struck a US$17 billion deal to acquire building products distributor and installer TopBuild , whose shares surged.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe fell 2.37 points to 1,072.39. The pan-European STOXX 600 and Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index each fell 0.8 per cent.
An index of emerging market stocks rose 5.64 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 1,602.77. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed higher by 0.6 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 348.99 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 58,824.89.
U.S. benchmark Treasury yields edged higher in subdued trading. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 1.4 basis points to 4.258 per cent from 4.244 per cent on Friday. The 30-year bond yield rose 0.3 basis points to 4.8877 per cent while the 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, rose 2.5 basis points to 3.725 per cent.
The dollar reversed earlier gains on optimism that the ceasefire will hold, despite renewed tensions. The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.4 per cent to 98.07, with the euro up 0.2 per cent at US$1.1785. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.1 per cent to 158.83.
Bitcoin gained 2 per cent to US$76,169.97. Ethereum rose 2.2 per cent to US$2,332.09.
Spot gold fell 0.3 per cent to US$4,815.29 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 1 per cent to US$4,807.20 an ounce.
Reuters