The Toronto Stock Exchange and Canadian dollar were up Wednesday morning after the country’s central bank announced its key lending rate will remain unchanged, as expected.
The loonie had been down before North American stock markets opened but later traded at 75.86 cents US, up 0.13 from Tuesday’s close.
The S&P/TSX composite index was off its early high Thursday but still up 48.49 points at 13,679.16, adding to a 152-point gain on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones average of 30 stocks was up 9.42 points at 16,502.10, the broader S&P 500 index was up 1.35 points at 1,970.76 and the Nasdaq index was down 0.55 points to 4,811.38.
On the commodity markets, the December gold contract fell $11.50 to US$1,109.50 an ounce, the October crude contract was down 73 cents at US$45.21 a barrel and the October contract for natural gas was down four cents at US$2.67.
In Ottawa, the Bank of Canada said midmorning that the country’s resource sector continues to adjust to lower prices for oil and other commodities as it announced its policy rate would remain at 0.5 per cent.
