TORONTO -- The Toronto stock market was higher Monday afternoon as mining issues advanced despite falling metal prices, while south of the border New York markets soared on solid earnings reports.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 31.58 points to 15,392.13. The Canadian dollar was 0.02 of a U.S. cent lower at 81.76 cents.
The increase in Toronto followed a weekend decision by China's central bank to cut the required reserve ratio for banks by one percentage point in a move to stimulate lending and the Chinese economy. China is a major consumer of oil and metals, both heavily weighted sectors on the TSX.
In the U.S., the Dow industrials surged 206.90 points to 18,033.20, while the Nasdaq jumped 60.72 points to 4,992.53 and the S&P 500 index added 19.26 points to 2,100.44. Several big companies, including toy maker Hasbro, banker Morgan Stanley and oil services firm Halliburton all reported earnings that beat estimates.
It's a big week for earnings in the United States with close to one-third of the companies on the S&P 500 reporting first-quarter results. Most analysts have predicted that overall earnings will be lower in the quarter, the first time that has happened since 2009.
On the commodity markets, the May crude contract up 47 cents at US$56.21 a barrel, while the June gold contract was down $9.90 at US$1,193.20 an ounce and copper was off five cents at US$2.73 a pound.
