It was a wild day for North American markets.
The TSX surged 385 points, lifted by gains in 10 of 11 sectors.
South of the border, things didn’t look too rosy on Wall Street as the Dow had plunged more than 600 points earlier in the day.
But by the end of the trading day, the exchange swung around, holding onto some of its momentum from Wednesday’s historic rally by moving 260 points higher.
On Bay Street, bank and energy stocks guided the TSX into the green.
Natural gas producer Encana Corporation was up a whopping 14.6 percent, and led a surge among energy companies.
Suncor, Crescent Point, Enbridge, and Canadian Natural Resources all jumped between 3.9 and 6.7 percent.
The index’s energy sector is still riding the wave of yesterday’s 9.5 percent jump in the price of U.S. crude, even though oil dropped today, down 81 cents to $45.41 US a barrel.
It was also a good day for the TSX’s financials sector which jumped 2.3 percent with all of Canada’s large banks climbing into positive territory.
In New York, the Dow is still riding high from a history-making Boxing Day, when it swelled more than 1,000 points on reports of the best U.S. holiday shopping season in years.
The Boxing Day surge was a much-needed reprieve for the exchange, which is having its worst December since the Great Depression.
The Dow moved up despite China’s industrial profits declining for the first time in nearly three years, and a Reuters report that U.S. President Donald Trump is considering barring U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment built by China’s Huawei and ZTE.
A drop in Apple shares kept the Nasdaq in check, as the index only managed to edge up 25 points.
Apple slipped 0.6 percent, and was joined in the red by Tesla and Amazon, although all three managed to pare earlier losses.
The Canadian dollar weakened by a quarter of a cent to $0.7342 US while gold moved up $5.50 to $1,274 an ounce.
