The Toronto and New York stock markets surged today, propelled by the boss of the US central bank who spoke in favor of maintaining the Fed’s aid to the US economy.
In Toronto, the S & P / TSX index gained 74 points (0.52%) to end the session at 14,335 points.
Among the stocks to watch, the action ofAir Canada continues to confuse investors. After losing a lot of altitude in recent weeks, the airline’s stock has rallied higher, gaining more than 7% to close at $ 5.53. The action of Cogeco finished at an all-time high of $ 57.35, up 1.97%.
Wall Street ended the last session of the quarter on a positive note: the Dow Jones took and the Nasdaq.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average appreciated 134.60 points (0.82%) to 16,457.66 points and the technology-dominant Nasdaq 43.23 points (1.04%) to 4,198.99 points.
The S&P 500 index rose 0.79% (+ 14.72 points) to 1,872.34 points.
The flagship Dow Jones index, however, fell 0.72% over the entire first quarter of 2014. This is its first quarterly decline since the end of 2012. The other two major indices of the New York market have to l ‘reverse progressed.
“Janet Yellen’s comments helped the indices strengthen their rise” observed at the opening Monday, as they reassured some operators worried that the Fed would withdraw aid to the US economy too quickly, noted Peter Cardillo, of Rockwell Global Capital.
The boss of the Fed indicated that the exceptional support of the central bank to the economy was “still necessary” and would be still “for some time”.
Ms. Yellen, who was speaking in Chicago, said that economic activity was “still very far from the two objectives of the Fed”, maximum employment and stable prices.
“The operators are a little heated on the question of a rise in rates six months after” the end of its program of liquidity injections, mentioned by Ms. Yellen in March, noted Alan Skrainka, Cornerstone Wealth Management. And the remarks made Monday “helped calm things down,” he said.
Investors were however disappointed by the unexpected decline in economic activity in Chicago and were watching for a new round of figures this week on manufacturing and real estate activity in particular, and especially on employment in March Friday.
The indices also benefited from “increased expectations of measures to support the Chinese economy” to offset the slowdown in the world’s second largest economy, noted Michael James of Wedbush Securities.
The market was also helped by the rebound in the technology sector, which was somewhat heckled the week before.
The bond market retreated. The yield on 10-year Treasury bills rose to 2.723% from 2.712% on Friday night, and the 30-year yield to 3.561% against 3.544% at the previous close.
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