Canadian Market Pares Early Gains, Roughly Flat At Noon

(RTTNews) - After opening modestly higher and moving further up subsequently, the Canadian market pared its gains Wednesday morning and is roughly flat at noon.

Firm commodity prices and rising hopes that central banks will slow the pace of interest rate hikes contributed to the positive start, while weak industrial production and retail sales data from the U.S. weighed on sentiment, prompting investors to lighten commitments.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which climbed to 20,632.01, gaining nearly 175 points in the process, is at 20,464.50 at noon, up just 7.04 points from the previous close.

The Materials Capped Index is climbing 1.6%. Dundee Precious Metals (DPM.TO) is soaring nearly 11%. Algoma Steel Group (ASTL.TO) and Ero Copper (ERO.TO) are up 7% and 6.5%, respectively.

Lundin Mining (LUN.TO), Capstone Mining (CS.TO), Ivanhoe Mines (IVN.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) and Canfor Corp (CFP.TO) are gaining 3 to 4.5%.

The Energy Capped Index is rising 1.2%. Athabasca Oil Corp (ATH.TO) is up more than 4%. Tamarack Valley Energy (TVE.TO), Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO), Parex Resources (PXT.TO), Arc Resources (ARX.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) and MEG Energy Corp (MEG.TO) are up 2 to 3%.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed commodity prices in Canada increased by 7.5% from a year earlier in December 2022, easing from a 7.9% gain in the prior period. It was the lowest reading since January 2021.

Producer prices in Canada increased 7.6% in December of 2022 over the same month in the previous year.