BREAKING Bob Cole, veteran CBC broadcaster and former voice of 'Hockey Night in Canada,' dead at 90
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
The S&P/TSX composite index snapped a six-day losing streak Wednesday as it made substantial gains along with U.S. markets after U.S. Treasury yields retreated on speculation central banks may ease up on restrictive, inflation-fighting policies.
Markets in Canada and the U.S. were up around two per cent on the day after the Bank of England said it would buy government debt to stabilize the economy, fuelling the sense of a potential wider reversal, said Greg Taylor, chief investment officer of Purpose Investments.
“This morning started off with some pretty big moves with the Bank of England coming out and basically reversing policy and starting to buy back bonds to try and stabilize the currency,” said Taylor.
“I think that added a little bit of comfort in the markets, essentially getting close to a sign that globally, central banks are going to do some sort of pivot and back off their hawkish stance.”
The Bank of England's announcement, coming after a debt-fuelled tax cut plan released last week rattled the British pound, helped push down U.S. 10-year Treasury yields from four per cent overnight to around 3.7 per cent late afternoon Wednesday.
“This has got to be one of the bigger intraday percentage moves you've seen in bonds in a long time,” said Taylor. “That's a pretty big deal and what it might be signalling is we're really reaching the peak of that hawkishness, that the Fed's been really aggressive and talking rate hikes, and now we are seeing a glimmer that maybe we've hit the max.”
The breathing room helped push the S&P/TSX composite index up 341.01 points, or 1.9 per cent, to close at 18,648.92, rising from the low for the year reached a day earlier.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 548.75 points, or 1.9 per cent, at 29,683.74. The S&P 500 index ended up 71.75 points, or almost two per cent, at 3,719.04, while the Nasdaq composite was up 222.13 points, or 2.1 per cent, at 11,051.64.
The retreat in U.S. Treasury yields also indirectly helped boost commodity, said Taylor.
“The big thing with commodities is generally, everything we look at is priced in U.S. dollars. So when the U.S. dollar goes up, most commodities go down in price. But what we're seeing with the move down in yields, we're also seeing the move down in the U.S. dollar, so that's, that's supportive of a lot of commodities.”
The November crude contract was up US$3.65 at US$82.15 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was up 20 cents at US$6.96 per mmBTU.
Taylor said the energy sector also likely got a boost from the energy crisis in Europe, which looked worse after suspected sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines on Tuesday.
Rising oil and gas prices helped push up the S&P/TSX energy index by 4.05 per cent, including gains of 4.5 per cent from Suncor Energy Inc. and 9.2 per cent from Tamarack Valley Energy Ltd.
The December gold contract was up US$33.80 at US$1,670.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was up 7.5 cents at US$3.36 a pound.
Rising gold prices helped push the S&P/TSX global gold index up 5.7 per cent, including gains of 5.2 per cent for Barrick Gold Corp. and 6.4 per cent for Kinross Gold Corp.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.21 cents US compared with the more than two-year low of 72.85 cents US reached on Tuesday as it got a bounce from equity gains along with a boost in commodities, but especially from the dip in the U.S. dollar, said Taylor.
“The big thing is it's all U.S. dollar related, that given some of the moves in bond yields and in the fears of a global recession, people moved toward the U.S. as a safe haven asset. That really crushed every other currency in relative terms. So as people start to move back a little bit from that, all the other currencies are benefiting.”
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.