Equities in Canada’s largest market rose slightly on Monday in choppy trading, with investors assessing a mixed set of quarterly earnings from top domestic lenders.
The TSX gained 19.58 points to move toward noon hour EST Thursday at 25,660.76
The Canadian dollar was better by 0.21 cents to 71.27 cents U.S.
Bank of Montreal reported a drop in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday due to increased provisions for potential loan losses, while Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reported a rise as it set aside smaller funds for the same purpose.
BMO shares climbed $3.65, or 2.7%, to $137.80, while those for CIBC gained $3.67, or 4.1%, to $93.24.
Meanwhile, Toronto-Dominion Bank is also expected to report quarterly results before the bell. TD shares sagged $4.33, or 5.4%, to $75.33.
In the economic docket, Statistics Canada our merchandise exports increased 1.1% and imports rose 0.5% in October. As a result, Canada’s merchandise trade deficit with the world narrowed from $1.3 billion in September to $924 million in October.
Moreover, it appears traders have fully priced in a rate cut by the Bank of Canada next week but remain conflicted on the magnitude.
The IVEY School of Business was also slated to put out its Purchasing Managers Index for November.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 4.83 points to 612.67.
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly split by lunch hour, with consumer staples picking up 1.2%, energy, better by 0.6%, and utilities improving 0.5%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed by gold, down 1.3%, while real-estate dipped 0.9%, while materials slid 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks were relatively unchanged on Thursday following a record day for equities, while bitcoin also reached all-time highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial index dropped 125.81 points to 44,888.23
The S&P 500 subsided 2.65 points to 6,083.84.
The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite gained 11.81 points to 19,746.92.
Bitcoin traded more than 3% higher, breaking above $100,000 for the first time. The move led crypto-related stocks such as MicroStrategy higher 0.7% while Coinbase rose 3%.
This comes as first-time filings for jobless benefits for the week ending Nov. 30 rose by 9,000 to 224,000, higher than the Dow Jones estimate for 215,000. On the other hand, the level of continuing claims, which run a week behind, edged lower by 25,000 to 1.871 million.
Traders on Thursday looked ahead to key U.S. employment data on Friday. Economists polled by Dow Jones forecast the U.S. economy added 214,000 jobs in November.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury dropped, raising yields to 4.20% from Wednesday’s 4.19%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lost 27 cents to $68.27 U.S. a barrel.
Prices for gold dropped $13.80 an ounce to $2,662.40 U.S.
Equities Little Changed
