TSX up amid slew of retail earnings; traders look to Fed minutes, bank earnings
Posted May 21, 2014 9:44 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – The Toronto stock market closed higher as traders felt reassured about the intentions of the U.S. Federal Reserve on rate hikes and looked to a run of positive earnings reports from the big banks.
The S&P/TSX composite index ran ahead 124.67 points to 14,649.86, a day before Royal Bank (TSX:RY) and TD Bank (TSX:TD) kick off results. The Canadian dollar was down 0.13 of a cent at 91.62 cents US.
New York was also higher as minutes of the Fed’s April meeting showed that officials discussed how to eventually tighten monetary policy and move rates away from near zero, where they’ve been since the financial crisis of 2008.
A number of Fed officials said it would be important for the central bank “communicate still more clearly about the Fed’s policy intentions as the time of the first increase in the federal funds rate moves closer.”
The Dow Jones industrials jumped 158.75 points to 16,533.06, the Nasdaq climbed 34.65 points to 4,131.54 and the S&P 500 index rose 15.2 points to 1,888.03.
