By Adriano Marchese


Toronto stocks were firmly higher Friday at midday, rebounding slightly from mid-week lows caused by a hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve outlook that sent global markets tumbling. All sectors were pushing ahead in the session, led by tech services, electronic tech and health services.

Canadians were more reluctant to spend last month ahead of a tax break on some purchases that kicked in over the holiday season, putting a dent in a long streak of retail sales growth since not seen since pandemic-related lockdowns were lifted.

Meanwhile, an advance estimate of Canadian wholesale trade indicated that sales retreated in November thanks to weakness in the automotive industry.

Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 1% to 24657.96 and the blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 climbed 1% to 1478.91.

BlackBerry shares jumped 21% to 5.17 Canadian dollars ($3.59) after reporting better-than-expected third-quarter results, days after announcing it was shedding its embattled cybersecurity business, Cylance, at a loss.


Other market movers:

CAE shares rose 3.8% to C$34.11 after activist investor Browning West said it wants to be a part of CAE's executive search for its next chief executive to help it climb out of its five-year underperformance slump.

Shares in Ballard Power Systems rose 5.6% to C$2.28 after it said it received orders for 90 fuel cell engines that will be used in buses destined for Europe and the U.K.

Foran Mining was granted it conditional funding approval from the Canadian government for up to C$20 million to support infrastructure construction at its Saskatchewan critical mineral project. Shares rose 1.1% to C$3.99.


Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

12-20-24 1221ET