Canadian Stocks Climb As US Secures More Trade Deals

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks rose on Wednesday, tracking positive cues on the tariff front as US confirmed major trade deals with Japan and the Philippines.

Opening just below yesterday's close, the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index swung today for the most part when it reached an intra-day high of 27,462.75 by mid-afternoon. Travelling lower from there, it finally settled at a fresh record high of 27,416.41, up by 51.98 (or 0.19%).

US President Donald Trump announced a trade pact between the US and Japan under which Japanese imports will face 15% tariff against the earlier said 25%.

As Trump also confirmed a tariff framework done with Philippines, with the August 1 deadline for "reciprocal tariff" suspension period nearing, the news raised expectations of similar deals, sooner or later. In addition, Trump stated that a deal with EU could materialize soon.

With around 75% of the country's exports going to the US, Canadian export sectors today reverberated with this development.

Trump has already imposed a blanket 25% tariff on imports of certain Canadian goods as well as a 50% tariff on aluminium and steel imports.

As of now, Canadian imports to the US will suffer 35% tax if both countries do not reach a deal before the deadline.

Canada-US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc will be in Washington this week to steer the talks.

However, PM Mark Carney has stated that the country is pursuing only a deal that would serve the interest of Canadians and his government would not sign a deal ignoring what it costs to the Canadian economy.

Today, the data released by Statistics Canada revealed that new home prices in Canada fell 0.2% in June, marking the third consecutive monthly decline.

Bank of Canada is likely to keep the borrowing costs untouched based on this report as well as last week's decent economic data.

Major sectors that gained in today's trading were Energy (1.12%), Consumer Discretionary (1.03%), IT (0.95%), and Communication Services (0.79%).

Among the individual stocks, Magna International Inc (3.62%), Brp Inc (3.42%), Linamar Corp (3.16%), and Celestica Inc (7.52%) were the prominent gainers.

Major sectors that lost in today's trading were Real Estate (0.08%), Consumer Staples (0.48%), Materials (0.54%), and Industrials (0.62%).

Among the individual stocks, Orla Mining Inc (6.53%), Novagold Res Inc (5.53%), Canadian National Railway (4.09%), and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd (1.31%) were the notable losers.

Capital Power Corp (5.18%) and Baytex Energy Corp (4.80%) were among the prime market-moving stocks today.