Equities
Canada’s main stock index opened higher Monday, heading into a sixth straight day of gains, with energy stocks benefitting from higher crude prices while declines in gold weighed on materials shares. On Wall Street, key indexes also started up on optimism over the path ahead for interest rates.
At 9:30 a.m. ET, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 68.44 points, or 0.35 per cent, at 19,893.39.
In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 31.29 points, or 0.09 per cent, at the open to 34,092.61.
The S&P 500 opened higher by 5.93 points, or 0.14 per cent, at 4,364.27, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 35.80 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 13,514.08 at the opening bell.
Easing concerns about the future course of interest rates, helped bolster stocks last week. A softer-than-expected reading on U.S. hiring in October on Friday added to investor optimism over the future path of borrowing costs.
“This week marks a significant cooling off period as the influence of earnings and economic data releases start to fade,” Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst with Scope Markets, said.
“With that in mind, the price action seen this week should provide a good temperature check for markets having seen central banks and the vast majority of third-quarter earnings reported.”
In Canada, investors will have another heavy week of earnings. Brookfield Asset Management is scheduled to report today.
TC Energy Corp., Great-West Lifeco Inc. and Suncor Energy Inc. report on Wednesday while Rogers Communications Inc., Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd., Cineplex Inc., Aurora Cannabis Inc. and Canopy Growth Corp. all report on Thursday.
On the economic side, markets will get the deliberations from the Bank of Canada’s latest policy meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Two weeks ago, the central bank held its key policy rate at 5 per cent. Senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers is scheduled to give a speech in Vancouver on Thursday on financial stability in an era of higher interest rates.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was off 0.15 per cent by midday. Britain’s FTSE 100 slid 0.12 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were down 0.23 per cent and 0.42 per cent, respectively.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei jumped 2.37 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.71 per cent.
Commodities
Crude prices were higher after Saudi Arabia and Russia both reaffirmed their commitment to continue voluntary production curbs through to the end of the year.
The day range on Brent was US$84.88 to US$86.30 in the early premarket period. The range on West Texas Intermediate was US$80.66 to US$81.96. Both benchmarks lost about 6 per cent last week.
“Even though the Saudis will put all their weight to keep oil prices above the $80 per barrel and rising (and saying that they will extend production curbs into next year should be enough to get the bears to their knees), the morose economic outlook and weak manufacturing data across the globe will likely limit gains before we get close to that well-wished $100-per-barrel level,” Swissquote senior analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya said.
Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia confirmed on Sunday it would continue with its additional voluntary cut of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in December to keep output at around 9 million bpd.
Russia also announced it would continue its additional voluntary supply cut of 300,000 bpd from its crude oil and petroleum product exports until the end of December, the news agency said.
In other commodities, spot gold was down 0.5 per cent at US$1,981.90 per ounce by early Monday morning after breaching US$2,000 an ounce on Friday. U.S. gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,989.80.
Currencies
The Canadian dollar was higher while its U.S. counterpart continued to pull back against world currencies on easing concerns about future interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
The day range on the loonie was 73.11 US cents to 73.37 US cents in the early premarket period. The Canadian dollar has gained about 1.4 per cent against the greenback over the past five days.
The U.S. dollar, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, slid 0.2 per cent, its lowest level in more than 6 weeks. The index fell more than 1 per cent last week, according to figures from Reuters.
The euro, meanwhile, edged up to US$1.0756, its highest in more than seven weeks.
Britain’s pound was up 0.3 per cent at US$1.2414.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was slightly higher at 4.593 per cent ahead of the North American opening bell.
More company news
Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. says it earned US$122-million in its latest quarter from its stake in the asset management business it owns with Brookfield Corp. The company, which owns a 25-per-cent stake in the asset management business that is 75-per-cent owned by Brookfield Corp., says the profit in U.S. dollars amounted to 31 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30. The asset management business, Brookfield Asset Management, was spun off from Brookfield Corp. in December last year. The full asset management business, which keeps its results in U.S. dollars, earned US$494-million in its third quarter, up from US$395-million a year earlier. -The Canadian Press
Economic news
(10 a.m. ET) Canada’s Ivey PMI for October.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. Global Supply Chain Pressure Index for October.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press
Terry Weber