Hopes Of A US-Canada Trade Deal Lifts Market Up

(RTTNews) - Despite the resurfacing of fresh tariff threats and heightening geopolitical tensions, Canadian stocks edged their way into positive territory during trading on Thursday. Investors weighed on the prospects of a trade deal between US and Canada at the G7 summit that begins on June 15.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index gained momentum throughout the day. Despite drifting lower before noon, the index retraced its journey upwards to settle at 26,615.75, up by 91.59 points or 0.35%.

Yesterday, US President Donald Trump stated that he is going to send letters to trading partners of US in the coming weeks, setting unilateral tariffs. Viewed as a measure ahead of the July 9 deadline which Trump himself had earlier set for tariff negotiations, this is seen as a worrying factor for markets.

On the geopolitical front, the US has begun evacuating non-essential staff from its Baghdad embassy. This move comes after Trump had said yesterday that he felt less confident of a possible US-Iran nuclear deal but would not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.

Countering Trump, Iranian defense minister threatened that Iran would attack US bases if there is a conflict. This has spurred anxiety in the Middle East region.

On the US-China trade front, despite Trump stating that a deal has been done with China, a lack of specifics in the framework has raised uncertainty.

Again, even as the July 8 deadline imposed by Trump is only a few weeks away, discussions for a trade agreement between US and EU is moving at a slower pace.

The major sectors that gained in today's trading were Communication Services (1.22%), Healthcare (1.13%), and Consumer Staples (1.06%). Also Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, Financials, Energy, Real Estate, Utilities, and Materials gained between 0.16% to 0.92%

Among individual stocks, Rogers Communication (1.73%), Bausch Health (3.02%), Jamieson Wellness (1.86%), George Weston (1.60%), G-Mining (8.38%), Lundin Gold (6.41%), and Torex Gold (5.55%) were the prominent gainers today.

The IT sector was the single biggest loser in today's trading, shedding 0.84%.

Among individual stocks, Lightspeed Commerce (4.97%), Shopify (4.77%), and Bitfarms were the notable losers.