TORONTO - The Toronto stock market appeared poised to advance for a second day Friday as Canadians headed into the Victoria Day holiday weekend.
At mid-afternoon, the S&P/TSX composite index was up 57.49 points at 15,085.61 as Statistics Canada reported that manufacturing sales jumped a stronger than expected 2.9 per cent in March. The TSX advance added to a more than 47-point gain the previous session in what otherwise has been a down week on Canada's main index.
The loonie lost 0.22 of a U.S. cent to 83.12 cents in the face of a pullback in commodity prices as the U.S. dollar strengthened.
The June crude oil contract declined for a third day, falling 29 cents to US$59.60 a barrel after closing above US$60 earlier in the week. Meanwhile, June gold gave back $1.60 to US$1,223.60 an ounce, but was still well above last Friday's close of US$1,188.90.
In New York, markets were marginally lower after major advances on Thursday that saw the Dow Jones industrial index rise more than 190 points while the S&P 500 closed at a record high 2,121,10.
At mid-afternoon, the Dow was down 20.99 points at 18,231.25, while the S&P 500 was off 2.47 points at 2,118.63 and the Nasdaq fell 13.65 points to 5,037.15.
