Specialist Gregg Maloney works at his post talk on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, June 6.Richard Drew/The Associated Press
Canada's main stock index ended higher on Tuesday, carried by energy and materials companies that surged on the back of higher oil and gold prices.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index finished up 54.78 points, or 0.36 per cent, at 15,464.56.
Half of the index's 10 main groups advanced.
The materials group, which includes precious metal miners, jumped 3.4 per cent. Gold companies dominated the top of the index on the positive side, with Barrick Gold climbing 4.9 per cent to $22.86, and Kinross Gold rallying 8.6 per cent to $6.21.
Gold touched its highest level in seven weeks after the U.S. dollar fell to a seven-month low. The currency came under pressure after weak U.S. economic data trimmed expectations of a rapid rise in U.S. interest rates. Gold futures rose 1.2 per cent to $1,297.50 (U.S.) an ounce.
Iamgold Corp soared 11.7 per cent to $6.78 after Japan's Sumitomo Metal Mining Co said it agreed to take an interest in a gold mining project from the company for $195-million.
Advances were capped by a 0.6-per-cent retreat in financial services companies. The group includes Canada's biggest banks and insurers and accounts for about a third of the index's weight. Manulife Financial Corp declined 1.5 per cent to $23.15, while Royal Bank of Canada dipped 0.8 per cent to $92.81.
Investor sentiment was cautious ahead of a busy Thursday, with Britain heading to voting booths and former FBI director James Comey testifying before Congress. The European Central Bank is also meeting on Thursday. Wariness over the impact of an Arab rift over Qatar added to the uncertainty, particularly in the oil market.
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Major U.S. stock indexes ended near session lows on Tuesday as traders shied away from risky assets ahead of major political and economic headlines expected on Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 46.92 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 21,137.12, the S&P 500 lost 6.76 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 2,429.34 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 20.63 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 6,275.06.
Mr. Comey, who was investigating a possible collusion between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia to sway the 2016 U.S. election, was fired in May.
His testimony could dampen already flagging momentum for Mr. Trump's legislative agenda of rolling back healthcare reforms and overhauling the tax code.
Investors will also watch out for the European Central Bank's meet, where policymakers are expected to take a more benign view of the economy, according to sources.
"We have a relatively light week in terms of economic data and investors are awaiting Thursday's events," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
"The market's reaction to Comey's testimony would depend on if he says something new that nobody knows about, although, a lot of what he might be asked could be classified information."
Safe havens were in favour, with gold touching its highest in about seven weeks and U.S. 10-year Treasury yields falling to their lowest levels since the days following the November election.
On what BayernLB analysts called "Super Thursday," British voters will also go to polls in an increasingly unpredictable general election, the European Central Bank is due to meet and later the same day and Mr. Comey will testify before Congress.
"We have a big week or so ahead of us with the UK heading to the polls and the ECB announcing its latest monetary policy decision on Thursday and the Federal Reserve doing the same next Wednesday," said Craig Erlam, a market analyst for OANDA securities. "Once these events pass, we may have a little more clarity and therefore see a little less caution in the markets."
The diplomatic spat in the Middle East left oil prices hovering just below $50 a barrel and this, in turn, hit European stocks, which tumbled across the board.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 0.66 per cent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.25 per cent.
The broad Euro STOXX 600 was down 0.7 per cent while German stocks were down 1.05 per cent.
In Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.2 per cent lower, while Japan's Nikkei lost 0.95 per cent.
Crude oil prices rebounded after an early slide. Benchmark U.S. crude was up 40 cents, or 0.8 per cent, at $47.80 a barrel in New York. The contract fell 26 cents on Monday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, was up 34 cents, or 0.7 per cent, at $49.81 a barrel in London
Investors instead bought gold, U.S. Treasuries and German government bonds - some of the safest assets in the world - thrusting gold prices to seven-week highs and German 10-year borrowing costs to six-week lows.
U.S. Treasury yields dropped to a seven-month low of 2.129 per cent at one stage . It is a move that has come despite the Federal Reserve widely expected to raise U.S. interest rates next week, but also follows a run of weaker-than-expected U.S. data.
Mr. Erlam of OANDA said another area for concern is how steady sterling has been - about flat against both the dollar and the euro - potentially a sign of complacency before the election.
The lead of British Prime Minister Theresa May over the opposition Labour Party ahead of Thursday's general election has narrowed to just 1 percentage point, according to a poll conducted before the attacks in London on Saturday.
Other polls in recent days have found bigger leads for the Conservatives of up to 11 and 12 points.
The dollar, meanwhile, was fell to a more than six-week low against the yen and was at its weakest since the November U.S. election against a basket of other world currencies.
The dip came ahead of Mr. Comey's expected testimony on Thursday.
Reports suggest the former FBI chief plans to talk about conversations in which U.S. President Trump allegedly pressured him to drop his investigation into former national security adviser Mike Flynn, who was fired for failing to disclose conversations with Russian officials.