Canadian Market Notably Higher Despite Paring Some Early Gains

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is up firmly in positive territory in early afternoon trades on Wednesday, holding on to a significant portion of its gains, amid easing concerns about tariffs and U.S. President Donald Trump softening his stance against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The U.S. President toned down his rhetoric on Powell, saying he would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates but have no intention to fire him. Additionally, Trump also admitted that the 145% tariffs on China are "very high" and they will come down substantially.

Technology stocks are hogging the limelight. The Information Technology Capped Index is up nearly 4.2%. Financials, consumer discretionary and industrials stocks are among the other prominent gainers.

Energy and materials stocks are weak, weighed down by lower commodity prices.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 202.55 points or 0.84% at 24,508.53 a little while ago. The index climbed to 24,671.70 earlier in the session, gaining nearly 370 points.

Celestica is up more than 7%. Bitfarms and Shopify are gaining 6.9% and 6.8%, respectively. Sangoma Technologies is rising 6.5%. Dye & Durham, Docebo, Descartes Systems Group, Lightspeed Commerce, Constellation Software, BlackBerry and Open Text Corporation are up 3 to 4.5%.

Among consumer discretionary stocks, Aritzia is up more than 6%. Brp Inc., Linamar Corp., Gildan Activewear, Magna International and Spin Master Corp are gaining 1.8 to 3.5%.

Goeasy, up nearly 6%, is the top gainer in the Financials Index. Brookfield Asset Management, Brookfield Corporation, Manulife Corporation, IA Financial, Sun Life Financial, Onex Corp, Fairfax Financial Holdings and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce are also up with strong gains.

Data from Statistics Canada showed new home prices in Canada were unchanged in March from the previous month, following a modest 0.1% rise in February.

According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, home sales in March fell 4.8% compared to February and 9.3% year-on-year - the lowest level for the month since 2009.