By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com -- In Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite Index closed the day at 19,985.35 points, up 0.5% in the day’s trading and managing to eke out a gain supported by a rally in crude.
Unlike its Wall Street counterparts, gains in crude helped the commodity-heavy Canadian index close in the green (but just barely), even as risk-aversion dominated ahead of Jackson Hole and expectations for a resolutely hawkish Fed (despite today’s U.S. PMI data).
Crude prices jumped almost 4% as Saudi Arabia said it cut could production “any time” in order to support prices in the context of a possibly revived Iran nuclear deal, and the raising of western sanctions on the heavyweight oil producer.
Iran meanwhile gave up a key condition barring the inspection of undeclared nuclear material at sites that it had previously insisted in 2019, taking it one step closer to signing the nuclear deal and being once again allowed to participate in crude markets.
The Canadian index was also supported materials, which tracked gold prices higher as the yellow metal posted its first gain in seven sessions. Materials were also supported by a broad-based rally in metals, particularly aluminum, as supply is likely to come under further pressure this year following the announcement of European smelter cuts.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were HudBay Minerals Inc (TSX:HBM), which rose 9.35% or 0.50 points to trade at 5.85 at the close. Lundin Mining Corporation (TSX:LUN)added 8.37% or 0.57 points to end at 7.38 and Ero Copper (TSX:ERO) Corp was up 8.03% or 1.03 points to 13.86 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bausch Health (TSX:BHC) Companies Inc, which lost 6.46% or 0.47 points to trade at 6.81 in late trade. Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS) declined 5.25% or 4.24 points to end at 76.54 and Shopify (TSX:SHOP) Inc shed 2.75% or 1.19 points to 42.06.
In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.47%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.22%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.03%.
Trading today remained volatile as a drop in manufacturing and services activity for August, stoking fresh worries of a slowing economy and moderately raising bets of a dovish pivot from the Fed - although analysts (and equity markets today) seem to indicate such a move remains unlikely.
On the earnings front, investors digested mostly positive quarterly results from retailers including Macy’s.