North American stocks rose at the start of trading on Monday, with financials and other cyclical stocks driving most of the action – even as a shakeup at Research In Motion Ltd. left the BlackBerry maker out of the rally.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 33 points or 0.3 per cent, to 12,754. The broader S&P 500 rose 6 points or 0.5 per cent, to 1322. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index rose 106 points or 0.9 per cent, to 12,503.
RIM, where the co-founders and co-chief executives have resigned after considerably negative reaction to the stock's performance over the past year, fell 6.7 per cent.
However, Minefinders Corp. surged 24.7 per cent after receiver a $1.5-billion takeover offer from Pan American Silver Corp.
Among U.S. stocks, financials drove most of the action: Bank of America Corp. rose 3.5 per cent and JPMorgan Chase & Co. rose 1.3 per cent. Other economically sensitive stocks also rose: Hewlett-Packard Co. rose 1.9 per cent and Alcoa Inc. rose 1.3 per cent.
David Berman