A ceasefire in the U.S./China trade war turned out to be a breath of fresh air for investors today.
The global economic superpowers agreed at the G20 summit to put any new tariffs on hold for 90 days.
The Trump administration is also holding off on hiking tariff rates on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent.
The trade war truce boosted the Dow, which rose 287 points.
The exchange’s industrials sector led the surge, with trade-sensitive Boeing jumping 3.7 percent and Caterpillar surging 2.2 percent.
The Nasdaq also moved up, climbing 110 points with broad based gains among American tech companies including market movers Apple, Micron, Tesla, and Amazon.
But headway in the trade war along with a jump in oil prices and a 3.7 percent rise in the heavyweight energy sector didn’t translate into overly big gains on Bay Street.
After dipping into negative territory at midday, the TSX moved 77 points into the green.
Meanwhile, economists polled by Reuters predicted that the Bank of Canada will hike interest rates three times next year. The influential financials sector finished lower today, edging down 0.2 percent.
The most actively traded company on the index was Canadian cannabis producer Aphria and its stock plunged 27 percent after a U.S. short seller called it “black hole for shareholders’ money.”
Oil prices shot up on Monday, boosted by easing U.S./China trade tensions, the Alberta government ordering a production cut, and OPEC looking to cut supply.
Canadian crude skyrocketed after the Alberta government made moves to curb supply. Starting in January 2019, Alberta is reducing – or curtailing – production by 325,000 barrels per day until the province has enough shipping space to, according to the province “clear the current glut and improve prices.”
Alberta expects this move to take three months.
Oil moved $2.17 higher to $53.10 US a barrel.
The Canadian dollar and gold jumped as investors moved away from the safety of the greenback.
Gold was up $10.10 to $1,233 an ounce while the loonie strengthened by more than a quarter of a cent, up 32/100ths of a cent to $0.7573 US.
