At midday: Robust earnings, Aecon deal help lift TSX
Canada's main stock index rose on Thursday as a slew of earnings and CCC International Holding Ltd's acquisition of Aecon Group Inc drove gains.
Suncor Energy rose 2.1 per cent to $43.02, while Husky Energy Inc added 1.7 per cent to $16.53 after both companies reported better-than-expected third-quarter profits.
Oil and gas companies as a group climbed 0.2 per cent.
Aecon Group surged 16.6 percent to $19.26 on news that it agreed to be bought by the Chinese construction firm in a deal with an enterprise value of $1.51-billion.
The overall industrials sector rallied broadly as well, climbing 1.1 per cent.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index rose 42.99 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 15,897.76, putting it back on track toward a new record high.
Seven of the index's 10 key groups advanced.
The weighty financial services group rose 0.5 per cent, while tech stocks advanced 0.7 per cent.
Telecom stocks were up 0.9 per cent as Telus Corp extended its previous session's gains, rising 1.4 per cent to $47.76.
The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, lost 0.9 per cent, weighed down by Barrick Gold Corp and Teck Resources Ltd.
Barrick sank 5.5 per cent to $19.08 after disappointing quarterly results and uncertainty surrounding its gold mine in Tanzania, which is embroiled in a multi-billion dollar tax dispute.
Teck slumped 6.8 per cent to $27.30 after reporting weaker-than-expected third-quarter results and forecasting softer prices for its coal in the fourth quarter.
Potash Corp was down 1.3 per cent to $24.81 after the fertilizer producer posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly profit and narrowed its full-year forecast.
Unexpectedly better quarterly results for Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd and Goldcorp Inc tempered some of the mining losses. Agnico gained 6.9 per cent to $60.05 and Goldcorp was up 5.3 per cent to $17.37.
Wall Street was higher on Thursday, driven by gains in financial and technology stocks and ahead of earnings from marquee companies, including Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon.
The earnings season has been largely positive, with 75 per cent of the S&P 500 companies that have reported so far topping expectations.
However, with U.S. indexes at record levels, investors are taking a closer look at earnings to see if they justify stretched valuations.
Celgene's 20-per-cent fall was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, after the company reported lower-than-expected sales for its flagship multiple myeloma drug Revlimid and its psoriasis drug Otezla.
"You're always going to see reactions to the misses, and that's going to make the headlines. But stock prices tend to follow the bigger picture," said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network in Waltham, Massachusetts.
"Perhaps companies have done a little bit more in guiding expectations than usual."
Market is also closely watching on any news around President Donald Trump's nomination of the next Federal Reserve chair.
Mr. Trump's search has come down to Fed Governor Jerome Powell and Stanford University economist John Taylor, according to a Politico report. A White House official told Reuters that no final decision had been made.
In a step closer towards enacting Mr. Trump's tax cut plan, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to clear a procedural path forward for the tax bill, which is expected to be unveiled next week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 117.86 points, or 0.51 per cent, at 23,447.32, the S&P 500 was up 8.32 points, or 0.33 per cent, at 2,565.47 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 14.17 points, or 0.22 per cent, at 6,578.06.
Healthcare was the only laggard among the 11 major S&P sectors.
Bristol-Myers Squibb fell 3.6 per cent after the company said its gross margin, as a percentage of revenue, fell.
AbbVie dropped 1.8 per cent after reporting deaths in psoriasis studies.
Tech sector's 0.65-per-cent rise led the gainers. Microsoft and Intel are the other big companies set to report after the bell.
A more than 1-per-cent rise in JPMorgan and Bank of America led gains in the financial index.
Twitter jumped 15 per cent after the company said it could turn its first ever profit in the fourth quarter, helped by cost cuts and new sources of revenue.
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