Canada’s main stock index opened higher on Monday, as a surge in crude oil prices to a four-year high lifted energy stocks.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 24.78 points, or 0.15 per cent, at 16,248.91.
Oil prices jumped more than 2 per cent to a four-year high on Monday after Saudi Arabia and Russia ruled out any immediate increase in production despite calls by U.S. President Donald Trump for action to raise global supply.
Benchmark Brent crude hit its highest since November 2014 at $80.94 per barrel, up $2.14 or 2.7 per cent, before easing to around $80.75. U.S. light crude was $1.25 higher at $72.03.
“This is the oil market’s response to the OPEC+ group’s refusal to step up its oil production,” said Carsten Fritsch, commodities analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
Shares of Barrick Gold Corp. rose 4.6 per cent in early trading after the miner agreed to buy Randgold Resources Ltd in a $18.3-billion share deal to create the world’s largest gold company by value and output in an industry under investor pressure to put capital to good use.
U.S. stocks opened lower on Monday, led by declines in technology stocks and as the latest round of U.S.-China tariffs took effect.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 38.25 points, or 0.14 per cent, at the open to 26,705.25.
The S&P 500 opened lower by 7.84 points, or 0.27 per cent, at 2,921.83. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 47.57 points, or 0.60 per cent, to 7,939.38 at the opening bell.
The markets could be volatile and trading volumes higher as the S&P 500 sector shuffle takes effect, with the telecoms sector reshaped into a “communications services” index to include heavy-hitting technology stocks such as Facebook Inc , Twitter and Alphabet.
Shares of the three companies were down between 0.8 per cent, 1.9 per cent and 1.4 per cent, respectively, in early trading, on renewed fears of higher regulation after a report that the White House has drafted a preliminary order to direct federal agencies to probe the business practices of social media and internet firms.
U.S. tariffs on some $200-billion worth of Chinese goods took effect on Monday, along with Beijing’s retaliatory duties on $60 billion worth of U.S. products, which pressured trade-sensitive stocks.
The United States may be pushed out of the Chinese market and it is a growing market,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Fla.
“The markets were up pretty strong last week, keeping that in mind and also the news about trade is enough to contribute to the downward movement,” Brown said.
Boeing, the biggest U.S. exporter to China, dropped 0.8 per cent and Caterpillar 0.6 per cent, leading the losers on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
The benchmark S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow Industrials have fared better than the Nasdaq of late, as the latest list of Chinese goods subject to tariffs now includes many technology products.
Reuters