Materials and energy stocks push Toronto stock market higher, New York gains

TORONTO - Gains in the materials and energy sectors helped Canada's main stock index to a triple-digit gain in late-morning trading today.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index surged 242.13 points at 15,119.13.

The optimism was also seen on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 128.67 points at 24,594.31. The S&P 500 index was up 22.95 points at 2,664.84, while the Nasdaq composite gained 75.32 points at 6,984.14.

The Canadian dollar traded for 75.28 cents US compared with an average of 75.42 cents US on Tuesday.

In commodities, the January crude contract climbed 78 cents to US$54.21 a barrel and the December natural gas contract was up eight cents to US$4.60 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract jumped US$8.40 at US$1,229.60 an ounce and the December copper contract gained 0.02 of a cent at US$2.80 a pound.