After a slightly positive start and a subsequent fall into negative territory, the Canadian market edged higher Tuesday morning, amid optimism about the outlook for U.S. interest rates after data showed a slowdown in the annual rate of core consumer price growth in January.
Technology, consumer discretionary, healthcare and industrials shares are among the notable gainers. Materials and utilities shares are weak.
The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 45.36points or 0.2% at 21,814.58 about a quarter before noon.
Technology stocks Celestica Inc (CLS.TO) and Quarterhill (QTRH.TO) both gained about 3.85%. Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) are gaining 2 to 2.5%. BlackBerry (BB.TO), Copperleaf Technologies (CPLF.TO), Converge Technology Solutions (CTS.TO) and Alithya Group (ALYA.TO) are also notably higher.
Consumer discretionary stocks Mty Food Group (MTY.TO), Aritzia Inc (ATZ.TO), Restaurant Brands International (QSR.TO) and Canada Goose Holdings (GOOS.TO) are advancing 1.5 to 2%.
Healthcare stocks Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) and Sienna Senior Living (SIA.TO) are up 1.8% and 1.4%, respectively.
In the Industrials Index, Tfi International (TFII.TO) is up 1.7%, while Toromont Industries (TIH.TO), Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO), Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP.TO) are up 1 to 1.3%.
Novagold (NG.TO), down 5.2%, is the biggest loser in the Materials Index. Osisko Mining (OSK.TO) is down 4.2% and Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.TO) is lower by 3.2%. Stella-Jones (SJ.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO), Orla Mining (OLA.TO), Iamgold (IMG.TO), Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO) and B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO) are down 2.5 to 3%.
Data from the Labor Department showed the U.S. consumer price index climbed by 0.4% in February after rising by 0.3% in January.
Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer prices also rose by 0.4% in February, matching the increase seen in January. Economists had expected core prices to rise by 0.3%.
The report also said the annual rate of consumer price growth ticked up to 3.2% in February from 3.1% in January. The
Meanwhile, the annual rate of core consumer price growth slowed to 3.8% in February from 3.9% in January. Economists had expected the pace of growth to decelerate to 3.7%.
While core price growth slowed by slightly less than expected, the slowdown still seems to have added to optimism about the outlook for interest rates.