It was a positive day on both sides of the border as Canada’s main stock index pushed higher and U.S. stocks hit new record highs.
The S&P/TSX composite index advanced 72.25 points to 16,076.65, with the materials and base metals sectors leading the broad-based advance.
“Looking at all the sectors, they’re up — you have energy, materials and banking up. Overall, it’s a good day. I’ll take it,” said Allan Small, a senior investment adviser at HollisWealth.
South of the border it was a similar story as most industries, including technology and health-care companies, posted solid gains.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 160.50 points to 23,590.83. The S&P 500 index added 16.89 points to 2,599.03 and the Nasdaq composite index gained 71.77 points to 6,862.48.
In addition to Tuesday’s record finishes on Wall Street, investors were also cheered by a report from Goldman Sachs analyst David Kostin, who forecast that the S&P 500 will rise about 14% in 2018 if Congressional Republicans and U.S. President Donald Trump are successful in cutting corporate taxes.
Kostin said continued economic growth and lower taxes should help the S&P 500 rise to 3,100 by the end of 2020.
In Canadian corporate news, shares of RBC lost value amid news that the bank — the country’s biggest — is the first Canadian lender to be added to the Financial Stability Board’s list of global systemically important banks, which are deemed too big to fail. Its stock was down 9¢, or 0.09%, to $100.92.
Read: RBC added to list of global systemically important banks
Retail giant Loblaw Companies Ltd. was also down after Canada’s competition watchdog closed a 3 1/2-year civil investigation and concluded that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to support allegations that Canada’s largest grocer abused its dominant position in dealing with its suppliers. Its stock gave back 14¢, or 0.20%, to $68.94.
On the commodities front, the January crude contract advanced US51¢ to US$56.93 per barrel and the December natural gas contract was down US3¢ at US$3.02 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$6.40 to US$1,281.70 an ounce and the December copper contract added US4¢ to US$3.13 a pound.
In currency markets, the Canadian dollar was trading at US78.26¢, up 0.09 of a U.S. cent.
With a file from The Associated Press