Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
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.”
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
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.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.
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.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.