North American stocks push higher in late-morning, loonie up against U.S. dollar

By The Canadian Press on April 16, 2018.

The Toronto Stock Exchange Broadcast Centre is shown in Toronto on June 28, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim

TORONTO – The health-care sector, which includes some of the big medical marijuana names, helped boost Canada’s main stock index higher in late-morning trading as U.S. stock markets also moved up.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 19.12 points to 15,293.09, after 90 minutes of trading.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 217.19 points to 24,351.99. The S&P 500 index was up 17.99 points to 2,674.29 and the Nasdaq composite index was up 34.43 points to 7,141.08.

The Canadian dollar was trading at 79.53 cents US, up from an average value of 79.38 cents US on Friday.

The May crude contract was down 79 cents to US$66.60 per barrel and the May natural gas contract was up three cents to US$2.77 per mmBTU.

The June gold contract was up US$4.40 to US$1,352.30 an ounce and the May copper contract was up four cents to US$3.11 a pound.