Canada’s stock exchange was in the green for a second straight day, pushed higher by the health care and utilities sectors.
The TSX climbed 75 points with gains in eight of 11 sectors, led by a 3.8 percent spike in health care and a 1.3 percent rise in utilities.
Heading up health care was a 4.6 percent jump in pharmaceutical company Bausch (Bowsh) Health Companies Inc. and strong performances from Canada’s popular pot stocks with Aurora Cannabis, Aphria and Canopy Growth gaining between 1.6 and 6.8 percent.
In New York, increases in bellwethers Boeing, IBM, and Caterpillar helped the Dow move up 127 points.
Curbing gains was the ongoing U.S. midterm elections, which has implications on Wall Street with a potential power shift towards the Democrats.
The Nasdaq also moved 47 points higher with Apple, Alphabet, and Facebook above the flat line.
Despite American sanctions on Iran now in place, oil tumbled to a seven-month low after the U.S. allowed exemptions to international buyers of Iranian crude.
This eased supply concerns as oil dropped $1.37 cents to $61.73 a barrel.
The loonie and gold lost value as the greenback strengthened.
The Canadian dollar was down 10/100ths of a cent, ending the day at $0.7617 US while gold lost $4.70 to $1,227 an ounce.
Meanwhile, the North American Aluminum Association has issued a joint letter, calling for full exemptions from tariffs or quotas for aluminum products within the North American market before signing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
The letter notes that the industry supports a modernized, trilateral agreement that “recognizes the importance of the integrated North American supply chain and enables the aluminum industry to meet growing demand year over year.”
