Sempra press release
The beat goes on
NYSE - New York Stock Exchange · Natural Gas · United States
Investors take in Fed move
Mar. 19, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --
10:22 am EST Bay Street appears not to be missing a beat in light of seven straight upward trading sessions, this one likely in relief of a plan by the U.S. Federal Reserve to buy back Treasuries.
New York markets also moved higher in the wake of the U.S. Federal Reserve's announcement that it would pump more than $1 trillion U.S. into the economy.
After the first half-hour of trading, Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index raced ahead 168.44 points to 8,797.54, mostly on the backs of mining and materials' stocks. It adds up to a surge of more than 1,000 points or 14% over the past seven sessions.
Economically speaking, Statistics Canada says Canada's annual inflation rate rose to 1.4% in February from 1.1% the previous month. This was the first increase in the cost of living in five months.
The TSX gold sector ran up and Barrick Gold Corp. rose $1.72 to $41.57.
Hopes the Fed action will also blunt the effects of a global recession also sent oil prices higher. Among energy stocks, Suncor Inc. climbed $2.37 to $33.57 and Canadian Natural Resources rose $2.20 to $51.25.
The base metal sector gained and Teck Cominco Ltd. surged 65 cents or 12.4% to $5.65.
Financials were also stronger, as Manulife Financial gained 83 cents to $15.72.
The Canadian dollar gained another 1.30 cents to 81.54 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 13 TSX subgroups, nine were higher, metals and mining stocks boosting themselves 8.1%, followed by materials, up 4.7% and energy stocks, ahead 4.6%.
Three of the four losing subgroups were consumer staples, down 1.1%, telecoms, off 0.9% and real-estate, off 0.7%.
The TSX Venture Exchange was 12.31 points higher to begin the session, at 878.02, while the Nasdaq Canada index was 10.98 points up, at 431.72.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrials average tacked on 16.09 points to begin Thursday at 7,502.67
The much-broader S&P 500 picked up 3.20 points to 797.55, while the tech-laden Nasdaq rebounded 7.34 points to 1,498.56
The Fed's moves are aimed at driving down borrowing costs for everything from mortgages to credit cards.
The U.S. central bank also plans to buy some $750 billion U.S. in mortgage-backed securities, which would help revive the country's sagging housing market.
The move - which economists call "quantitative easing" - is aimed at effectively reducing market interest rates since the Fed's key rate, the federal funds rate, has been ratcheted down as low as it can go.
On the economic front, the U.S. Labor Department said the number of initial requests for unemployment insurance dropped to a seasonally adjusted 646,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 658,000, better than economists' expectations.
The news was somewhat mixed though as the number of people filing for more than a week set a new record for the eighth straight week, jumping 185,000 to a seasonally adjusted 5.47 million.
Shares in business software firm Oracle Corp. were ahead $1.83 to $17.76 U.S. after the company said it earned $1.33 billion U.S. in its third quarter versus $1.34 billion U.S. in the year-ago period. It also declared its first dividend, a surprise move that comes as other bellwethers are cutting or suspending their dividends to save money.
The April crude contract on the Nymex jumped $3.88 to $52.02 U.S. a barrel
The April bullion contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange surged $66.39 to $955.40 U.S. an ounce.