Stocks in U.S. election day rally, loonie up 2 cents
Investors in Canada and the United States bid up stocks on Tuesday as they showed they were not waiting for the results of the U.S. election.
The Canadian dollar was also higher on Tuesday. The loonie gained more than two cents to reach 86.87 cents US at the close of the trading day.
The U.S. dollar also down against the euro and the British pound. Just last week, the loonie briefly slipped under 77 cents US.
The improved sentiment drove up the S&P/TSX composite index more than 395 points, or slightly more than four per cent, to end Tuesday at 10,116.
The energy sub-index was up almost six per cent. The price of oil shot up $6.62 US to settle at $70.53 US.
On Wall Street, investors seemed to shrug off data that showed September factory orders in the U.S. fell 2.5 per cent from August, or more than three times what economists had been expecting.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 305 points at 9,625, while the Nasdaq was up almost 54 points at 1,780. The broader S&P 500 index rose 39 points to reach 1,005.
The buoyant mood on the markets comes as U.S. voters go to the polls to choose their 44th president. Whoever wins — Barack Obama or John McCain — will inherit a U.S. economy in disarray.
Stocks endured a punishing October, and U.S. gross domestic product contracted at an annualized rate of 0.3 per cent in the July-September quarter. Many economists expect contraction in the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2009.
0 comments:
Post a Comment