By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com -- At midday in Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index was at 19,436.04 points, up 0.94% in the day’s trading, tracking U.S. equities higher in a sharp reversal from the morning’s sell-off. Wall Street opened lower, and the TSX flat following weak earnings from Meta, and as investors digested the news that the U.S. economy had likely contracted for 2 quarters in a row. The data indicates that by an oft-cited rule of thumb, the world’s most powerful economy is in a recession.
However, analysts note that the risk of a recession has largely been priced into the market at this stage, and investors are taking positive direction from Jerome Powell’s comments yesterday that the Federal Reserve will likely slow its path of policy tightening after September.
All TSX sectors barring healthcare were in the green at midday, as investors reacted to the mixed bag of U.S. economic data, slowing interest-rate hikes, and key earnings on both sides of the border.
In Canada, the commodity heavy index was buoyed by better than expected results from resource companies - including Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX:AEM) Ltd, which jumped 5.8% on reporting better-than-expected quarterly earnings, and Cenovus Energy (TSX:CVE), up 1.6% and amongst the top traded TSX stocks at midday after reporting a near 11-fold surge in second-quarter profit.
Meanwhile, Ballard Power Systems (TSX:BLDP) was the top performing stock on the TSX today, tracking U.S. clean energy stocks sharply higher following news that Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, a key swing vote, will now support a proposal for new climate change spending.
Apart from Ballard, today’s top gainers included Mag Silver (-10.36%), Tilray (TSX:TLRY) (+9.57%), Alamos Gold (TSX:AGI) (+8.26%), and New Gold (+8.25%) were amongst today’s top gainers.
Healthcare was the only subindex in the red at midday, dragged down by Bausch Health (TSX:BHC), 51.4%, which dropped to its lowest level in more than 25 years following unconfirmed reports of a negative U.S. patent ruling concerning one of the company’s products. Trading on Bausch shares were temporarily halted following the frantic activity.
Apart from Bausch Health, Athabasca Oil (-7.02%), Methanex (-4.86%), Toromont Industrials (-3.51%), and Lundin Mining (-3.46%) were today’s biggest losers.