Stock markets rise pointing toward start of a good shopping season

TORONTO — North American stock markets rallied Monday from last week’s sell-off with the technology and consumer discretionary sectors rising on signs of a good start to the holiday shopping season.

The bounce is in part due to some exhaustion from last week’s selling, says Craig Fehr, Canadian markets strategist for Edward Jones.

“A good start to the week after a pretty lousy week last week,” he said in an interview.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 1.92 points at 15,012.65 after hitting a high of 15,127.13.

Information technology led the index, rising 2.5 per cent on increases by Shopify Inc. and BlackBerry Ltd. It was followed by consumer discretionary, which was helped by Hudson’s Bay Co. and Lululemon Athletica. The cannabis-heavy healthcare sector fell more than three per cent. Fehr said investors took advantage of deals following last week’s pullback.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 354.29 points to 24,640.24. The S&P 500 index was up 40.89 points at 2,673.45, while the Nasdaq composite gained 142.87 points to 7,081.85