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Rally Marches on

Baystreet.ca
·4 min read

Canada's main stock index extended gains for the fifth straight session on Thursday, aided by energy and industrial shares, although sentiment remained fragile amid increasing concerns over slowing global economic growth.

The S&P/TSX leaped 181.67 points to move into noon hour EDT Thursday at 20,565.42

The Canadian dollar gained 0.2 cents to 78.20 cents U.S.

The industrials sector rose with Richelieu Hardware up $1.96 or 5.7%, to $36.42, leading the gains, after CIBC upgraded the stock to "outperform".

Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Commerce reported diverging quarterly performances with the former two comfortably
beating expectations while the latter missed, all driven largely by provisions for credit losses.

RBC gained 29 cents to $128.84, and Toronto-Dominion took on $2.47, or 2.7%, to $96.25, while CIBC shed $1.04, or 1.5%, to $69.06.

On the economic beat, Statistics Canada informed us retail sales were virtually unchanged in March. Sales were up in 10 of 11 subsectors, led by higher sales at gasoline stations.

Lower sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers erased the gains observed in the remaining subsectors.

Elsewhere, the number of employees receiving pay or benefits from their employer—measured by StatsCan’s Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours as payroll employment—increased by 118,100 (or 0.7%) in March.

ON BAYSTREET

The TSX Venture Exchange jumped 10.02 points to 711.76.

All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups were positive in the early afternoon, consumer discretionary and health-care stocks each prospering 2.6%, and information technology popping 1.5%.

The two naysayers were gold, sagging 1%, and materials, tailing off 0.7%.

ON WALLSTREET

Stocks rose Thursday, as Wall Street tried to rebound from a long string of weekly declines.

The Dow Jones Industrials screamed higher 500.35 points, or 1.6%, to 32,620.63.

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The S&P 500 jumped 79.03 points, or 2%, to 4,057.76.

The NASDAQ Composite popped 318.44 points, or 2.8%, to 11,753.18.

The Dow has fallen the last eight weeks, while the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are riding seven-week losing streaks.

The market seems to have somewhat regained its footing this week, as investors hope inflation is starting to peak and that there’s good value to be found at these levels. The Dow is up 4.3% and S&P 500 has gained 3.9%. and the NASDAQ is ahead 3.3%.

The moves come after strong earnings from the retail sector gave a boost to investor sentiment, which was bruised by disappointing results from big-box retailers last week. Macy’s shares surged 15% after the company raised its 2022 profit outlook, and Williams-Sonoma rose 12% after beating estimates on the top and bottom lines.

Discount retailers Dollar Tree prospered 17% and Dollar General jumped 12%, after posting earnings beats.

PVH, Ralph Lauren and Ulta were also among the top performers in the S&P 500

Shares of chipmaker Nvidia bounced after falling on weaker-than-expected guidance for the second quarter and a warning of a slowdown in hiring. Shares reversed and climbed 4% after a slew of analysts reiterated their buy ratings on the shares and highlighted momentum in the company’s data center business. Similarly, software stock Snowflake tumbled 12.5% after the company’s guidance for operating margin came in narrower than expected.

Elsewhere, Twitter shares jumped more than 5% after Elon Musk increased his commitment in his takeover bid to $33.5 billion, which analysts have said indicates a new seriousness and increased probability that he’ll complete the deal.

Chipmaker Broadcom announced plans to buy cloud company VMware in a $61 billion deal, which would be one of the biggest tech acquisitions of all time. Broadcom shares gained more than 1%, and VMWare rose slightly.

First-quarter gross domestic product declined at a 1.5% annual pace, worse than the 1.3% Dow Jones estimate and a writedown from the initially reported 1.4%, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Initial jobless claims for the week ending May 14 totaled 218,000, which was an increase from the previous period and slightly higher than the 215,000 estimate.

Treasury prices slid, raising yields to 2.79% from Wednesday’s 2.76%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices hiked $4.18 to $114.51 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices subtracted $1.50 to $1,844.80 U.S. an ounce.