Baystreet.ca - Canada's main stock index opened higher on Friday, boosted by information technology stocks, while investors await next week's domestic economic data and policy changes from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump after he takes office.
The TSX gained 133.56 points to begin the week’s last session at 24,979.76, for a gain of 1.1% on the week so far.
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.11 cents at 69.36 cents U.S.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported Canadian investors increased their exposure to foreign securities by $17.8 billion in November, the highest investment since March 2024. Meanwhile, foreign investors acquired $16.4 billion of Canadian securities, led by an unprecedented investment in money market instruments.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange leaped 4.48 points to 612.92. The index is ahead of last week’s close by 0.7%.
All 12 TSX subgroups were higher in the first hour, led by health-care, information technology, both up 0.7%, and utilities, ahead 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks climbed Friday, as Wall Street looks complete its first weekly gain of the new year.
The Dow Jones Industrials bounced 312.31 points to 43,465.41
The S&P 500 took on 46.69 points to 5,984.03
The NASDAQ Composite hiked 222.45 points, or 1.1%, to 19,560.74.
Big tech stocks were also higher on the day, with shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) popping 3%. Chipmaking giant Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) jumped 2%, while Meta (NASDAQ:META) Platforms and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares added more than 1% each.
Strong earnings from major banks also boosted stocks this week, as they tried to shake off December doldrums that carried over into the start of 2025. Shares of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) are up more than 10% each on the week, while JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) jumped 6% and Goldman Sachs have popped 8.5%.
For the week, the Dow and S&P 500 are up 3.6% and 2.7%, respectively. That puts them on pace for their biggest weekly advance since the week of the U.S. presidential election in November. The NASDAQ Composite, up 2.4% week to date, is headed for its best one-week performance since early December.
Those gains come after investors received back-to-back reports showing inflationary pressures softening somewhat. The core consumer price index rose less than expected year on year, and the producer price index also had a smaller-than-anticipated increase for December.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained ground, lowering yields to 4.59% from Thursday’s 4.62%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices declined 59 cents to $78.17 U.S. a barrel.
Prices for gold dipped $4.50 an ounce to $2,746,40 U.S.