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Small Gains for TSX in First Hour
Stocks in Canada’s biggest market inched forward early on Friday, weighed by banks and Cameco Corp’s disappointing earnings and outlook, while gold miners gained and dairy company Saputo Inc rose after agreeing to buy an Australian milk producer.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 12.86 points to open Friday at 15,904.49
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.32 cents to 77.48 cents U.S.
Cameco shares dove $1.27, or 11.2%, to $10.09.
Precision Drilling Corp. reported a smaller-than-expected loss on Friday as drilling activity picked up in the United States on higher crude oil prices.
Precision gained 16 cents, or 5.4%, to $3.13.
Officials with Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan say potential buyers have shown big interest in Potash’s 32% stake in Chilean lithium producer SQM SA, after the firm reported a lower than expected third-quarter profit.
Potash shares lost 30 cents, or 1.2%, to $24.55.
Murray Goulburn Co-operative, Australia's largest milk processor, on Friday said it agreed to a buyout from Canadian dairy company Saputo Inc worth up to A$637.8 million ($488 million U.S.)
Saputo shares soared $1.66, or 3.8%, to $46.57.
Berenberg cut the target price on Teck Resources to $35.00 from $36.00. Teck shares declined 40 cents, or 1.5%, to $26.41.
Canaccord Genuity cut the target price on Eldorado Gold to $2.00 from $2.25. Eldorado shares squeaked up three cents, or 1.8%, to $1.71.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange was positive 0.81 points to 783.78
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were up mid-morning, with gold soaring 1.3%, energy 0.8% to the good, and consumer staples stronger by 0.5%.
The four laggards were weighed most by health-care, off 0.3%, as industrials and information technology each gave back 0.1%
ON WALLSTREET
Tech stocks surged on Friday as Wall Street cheered the blowout quarterly reports from three of the world's biggest tech companies.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 4.48 points to begin Friday trading at 23,405.34
The S&P 500 added 12.08 points to 2,572.48.
The NASDAQ jumped into nosebleed country 95.51 points, or 1.5%, to 6,652.29, led by shares of Amazon, Microsoft and Google-parent Alphabet; their stocks rose 10%, 8.7% and 5.9%, respectively.
E-commerce giant Amazon reported earnings per share of 52 cents a share, way ahead of estimates of three cents a share.
Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud business, was its main driver for growth, with sales leaping 42% on a year-over-year basis.
Amazon also received a boost in sales from Whole Foods, which it acquired in late August.
Microsoft, meanwhile, beat Wall Street earnings expectations by 12 cents a share as its commercial cloud business topped $20 billion in annualized revenue for its fiscal first quarter. The stock was on track to post its biggest one-day gain since October 2015.
Google-parent Alphabet reported adjusted earnings per share of $9.57, well above a Thomson Reuters estimate of $8.33 a share, as the company saw a higher-than-expected surge in the volume of clicks on Google ads across the world, especially in Asia.
Information technology has handily outperformed the broader U.S. stock market this year. The sector is up about 30% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained approximately 15%
Economically speaking, the first reading on third-quarter Gross Domestic Product showed the U.S. economy grew by 3%, above an estimate of 2.5%
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma struck parts of Texas and Florida in late August and early September. Excluding inventory investment, the economy grew at a 2.3% rate, slowing from the second quarter's 2.9% pace.
Equities have reached record highs recently in part because of improving economic data. Consumer sentiment hit 100.7 in October, just below the expected 100.8.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note acquired some might Friday, lowering yields to 2.42% from Thursday’s 2.46%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices improved 77 cents a barrel to $53.41 U.S.
Gold prices 90 cents an ounce to $1,270.50 U.S.