Canadian Stocks Close Slightly Higher But Off Best Levels

(RTTNews) - After moving to the upside early in the session, Canadian stocks gave back some ground over the course of the trading day on Wednesday but still closed slightly higher.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index inched up 5.16 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 16,897.34 after reaching an early high of 16,957.88, snapping a three-day losing streak.

Early buying interest was generated after a report from Bloomberg News indicated the U.S. and China are moving closer to agreeing on the amount of tariffs that would be rolled back in a phase one trade deal.

Citing people familiar with the talks, Bloomberg said U.S. negotiators expect a phase one deal to be completed before U.S. tariffs are set to rise on December 15.

The people told Bloomberg outstanding issues in the talks include how to guarantee China's purchases of U.S. agricultural goods and exactly which tariffs to roll back.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada announced its widely expected decision to maintain its target for the overnight rate at 1.75 percent.

The Bank of Canada said its October projection for global economic growth appears to be intact while noting ongoing trade conflicts and related uncertainty remain the biggest source of risk to the outlook.

Most of the sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, although energy stocks moved sharply higher along with the price of crude oil.

Crude for January spiked $2.33 or 4.2 percent to $58.43 a barrel after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories plunged by 4.9 million barrels in the week ended November 29th.

Technology stocks also turned in a strong performance on the day, while consumer, healthcare and materials stocks moved to the downside.