Stocks up on trade ‘understanding’

TORONTO — North American markets moved higher Monday after the U.S. and Mexico announced they had reached a preliminary trade accord, prompting the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite to set new all-time highs.

Investors took a collective sigh of relief that the prospective deal signalled that trade disagreements don’t have to end in aggressive protectionist actions, said Craig Fehr, Canadian markets strategist for Edward Jones. “If the market at certain periods over the past couple of months had been expecting these tariffs negotiations to result in an outright global trade war, this is at least some confirmation that some fruitful deals can potentially be reached,” he said in an interview.

Fehr said investors are probably leaping to the conclusion that a concrete deal is forthcoming despite hurdles that still need to be overcome. “There’s a lot of mechanics that are going to have to take place before the market can declare victory that the trade war is over.”

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average advanced 259.29 points at 26,049.64.

The S&P 500 index gained 22.05 points to 2,896.74 after reaching a high of 2,898.25. The Nasdaq composite surpassed 8,000 for the first time, gaining 71.92 points to 8,017.89 after reaching 8,024.94 in earlier trading.

The S&P/TSX composite index rose 88.34 points to 16,444.39, after touching a high of 16,475.34 on 213.9 million shares trading.

The increase reflects relief that perhaps an agreement won’t be categorically negative for Canada, specifically for the automotive sector, said Fehr.

“At the end of the day this probably signals that the expectations prior to today were more pessimistic than the read through from today’s U.S.-Mexico deal.”

The consumer discretionary sector was the second strongest sector. It closed up 1.45 per cent as shares in Canadian auto parts companies like Linamar Corp., Magna International Inc. and Martinrea International Inc. rose as much as 6.6 per cent on the day.

All sectors but utilities closed up. Healthcare gained 3.1 per cent, led by continued share increases by cannabis companies Aphria Inc. and Canopy Growth Corp.

The Canadian dollar traded higher at 77.01 cents US compared with an average of 76.71 cents US on Friday.

Fehr said it’s not surprising that the S&P 500 and Nasdaq reached new highs given that U.S. economic growth has been solid and second-quarter corporate profits were exceptional.

However, he doesn’t see things being as smooth for the rest of the year even though he sees equities continuing to increase.

The October crude contract was up 15 cents at US$68.87 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down 4.4 cents at US$2.869 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract rose US$2.70 at US$1,216 an ounce and the September copper contract was up 0.8 cents at US$2.708 a pound.

Meanwhile, shares of Tesla slipped on the first day of trading after the electric vehicle maker said it won’t consider going private after all. In morning trading Monday, Tesla Inc. was trading at $313.13, down $9.69, or 3 per cent, while the broader markets rallied.

Late Friday, founder Elon Musk said that after consulting with shareholders, the Palo Alto, California, company will stay public.

That followed a surprising tweet two weeks earlier when Musk said he had secured funding for a deal at $420 a share, then a 23 per cent premium.