Canada's main stock index rose on Thursday as resource stocks rose and Bombardier Inc rallied after winning a large plane order, while the financials group retreated.
Some of the most influential movers on the index included gold stocks. Barrick Gold Corp rose 3.8 per cent to $21.78, while Goldcorp Inc was up 4.2 per cent at $23.54 after reporting on Wednesday better-than-expected earnings.
Spot gold rose 0.8 per cent as the Bank of Japan held off from expanding monetary stimulus, boosting the yen versus the dollar, and after the Federal Reserve signaled on Wednesday that it was in no rush to tighten monetary policy.
The overall materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 2.2 per cent.
Energy stocks rose 0.9 per cent as oil prices set new 2016 highs. Suncor Energy Inc advanced 1.8 per cent to $36.91, while U.S. crude rices were up 0.3 per cent to $45.47 a barrel.
Bombardier Inc rose 3.5 per cent to $2.08, having touched its highest since July 8 last year of $2.28. The company won a multibillion dollar order for its CSeries passenger jets from Delta Air Lines, enhancing the new planes' credibility in international markets and boosting prospects for the loss-making company to return to profitability.
At 11:10 a.m. EDT, the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index rose 42.78 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 13,930.44. Last week it reached its highest in nearly six months at 13,971.83.
Six of the index's 10 main groups were higher.
Shares of BCE Inc rose 1.1 per cent to $58.81 after the telecom and media company reported a slightly better-than-expected quarterly profit as it added more wireless customers and earned more for each one.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc rose 2.4 per cent to $45.16. Activist investor William Ackman promised U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday he will urge the company's board to reduce the high prices of four life-saving drugs now at the heart of two congressional probes.
The financials group fell 0.5 per cent, including losses for heavyweight bank stocks. Bank of Nova Scotia fell 0.7 per cent to $64.99, while Bank of Montreal was down 0.6 per cent at $81.16.
Potash Corp of Saskatchewan fell 1.9 per cent to $22.66. The world's biggest fertilizer company by capacity cut its full-year profit forecast due to weak demand and lower prices.
The Canadian dollar was up nearly half a cent against the U.S. dollar in late-morning trading as it closed in on the 80-cent mark.
The loonie was up 0.49 of a cent at 79.74 cents (U.S.) amid broad weakness in the greenback.
Strong results from Facebook and a flurry of dealmaking helped U.S. stocks pare early losses caused by a surprising decision by the Bank of Japan to hold off from expanding monetary stimulus.
In New York, Facebook jumped as much as 10.9 per cent to a record of $120.79, a day after the company reported a 50-per-cent rise in revenue. The stock provided the biggest boost to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
St. Jude Medical soared 25.1 per cent to $77.47 after Abbott Laboratories said it agreed to buy the medical device maker for $25-billion. Abbott was down 7.3 per cent at $40.66.
DreamWorks Animation was up 24.2 per cent at $39.99, after Comcast said it will buy the company for $3.8-billion. Comcast was up 0.8 per cent at $61.84.
The BOJ's decision to hold steady in the face of soft global demand and a rise in the yen was particularly jarring for markets after media reports that the central bank wanted to go deeper into negative interest rates.
The decision comes a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to hold steady on rates and after fears eased that the Fed would signal a rise in June.
"While the central banks will continue to have an enormous impact on the market, the weaker dollar and stronger crude oil prices will support gains in the market," said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at SunTrust Private Wealth Management.
The U.S. stock market is on its second-longest bull run ever. The S&P 500, which is less than 2 per cent away from its record high, has rallied 15 per cent since February, helped by a recovery in oil prices and an accommodating Fed.
The Fed's accommodative policy is set to continue with traders pricing in only one rate hike this year, according to CME Group's FedWatch.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 30.3 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 18,011.25, the S&P 500 was up 1.39 points, or 0.07 per cent, at 2,096.54 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 22.80 points, or 0.47 per cent, at 4,885.94.
Seven of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, with the telecommunications index's 0.54 percent fall leading the decliners.
Data on Thursday showed that U.S. economic growth braked sharply to its slowest pace in two years as consumer spending softened. Gross domestic product increased at a 0.5 per cent, below the 0.7-per-cent increase expected by economists polled by Reuters.
Domino's Pizza fell 7.8 per cent to $123.44 after its results missed estimates, while Ford was up 3.3 percent at $14.11 after its net income more than doubled.
Oil markets steadied on Thursday after scaling 2016 highs for a third day in a row on the back of a weak dollar as investors looked beyond record high U.S. crude inventories and relentless pumping by major producers to the prospect of future demand.
Oil prices have risen 75 percent in about three months or less since hitting 12-year lows of around $27 a barrel for Brent in late January and about $26 for U.S. crude in mid-February.
For April, the two benchmarks are up nearly 20 per cent for their largest monthly gain in a year.
The rally, partly driven by the 6-per-cent drop in the dollar this year, has persisted despite U.S. crude stockpiles growing to all-time highs above 540 million barrels, according to government data on Wednesday.
Brent futures were up 36 cents at $47.54 a barrel, after setting a year-to-date high at $47.73.
U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 15 cents to $45.48, after hitting a 2016 high at $45.71.
"The market seems 'invincible,' and well supported my money flow," said Scott Shelton, broker at ICAP in Durham, NC.
The dollar fell half a percent, sliding for a fourth day in a row and to a two-week low against a basket of currencies . Declines in the dollar tend to make commodities denominated in the greenback, including oil, more attractive to holders of the euro and other currencies.
Many analysts believe the global glut in oil will ease from the second half of the year into mid-2017.
"The perception view crowd are starting to call the oil market rally the beginning of what will be a long bull market," said Dominick Chirichella, senior partner at the Energy Management Institute in New York.
"Clearly, the market is primarily focused on the forward supply-and-demand picture while continuing to push the bearish nearby fundamentals further into the background," he said.
While U.S. oil production itself has fallen, imports of crude into the country have risen and a global oversupply looks set to grow as major exporters from Saudi Arabia to Russia and Iran ramp up output in a battle for market share.
Even so, analysts said oil near or above $50 a barrel could make drilling attractive again for U.S. shale producers, potentially creating unmanageable supplies that sparked the collapse from the $100 levels of mid-2014.
"Some producers are also likely to use the higher price level for hedging transactions, which would likewise prevent any future fall in production," Commerzbank said.
With files from Bloomberg News and The Canadian Press