Though it was an up-and-down day in the markets, Canada’s main stock index ended trading higher on Wednesday. The TSX saw a boost by industrial and material stocks, while news of slowing US inflation shored-up the bets on a likely pause in interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. While mining stocks led the gainers followed by industrials, success was capped by declines among health care, energy, and utilities shares.
Traders received more encouraging inflation data in the form of May’s producer price index, an indicator of the path of inflation, which fell 0.3 per cent, moving lower than expected. May’s reading of the consumer price index in the previous session showed the lowest annual increase in more than two years, which also supported hopes that the Fed won’t raise interest rates.
The Canadian dollar traded for 75.00 cents US, compared to 75.15 cents US on Tuesday.
US crude futures traded $0.68 lower at $68.74 a barrel, and the Brent contract lost $0.66 to $73.63 a barrel.
The price of gold was up US$2.26 to US$ 1,946.13.
In world markets, the Nikkei was up 483.77 points to 33,502.42, the Hang Seng was down 113.00 points to 19,408.42, the FTSE was up 7.96 points to 7,602.74, and the DAX was up 80.11 points to 16,310.79.
The material provided in this article is for information only and should not be treated as investment advice. For full disclaimer information, click here.