The Toronto Stock Exchange saw some small gains early Tuesday as data showed an unexpected trade surplus for China last month.
Shortly after the open, the S&P/TSX composite index was up 11.1 points, or 0.09%, to 12,029.60. That followed Monday’s decline of 84.61 points, or 0.7%.
China reported an unexpected trade surplus of $5.35 billion US for March. It was encouraging for some in showing that world’s second-largest economy is unlikely to see a dramatic slowdown.
The downside of that, for some market players, is that it seemed more likely the Chinese government would maintain measures for preventing its economy from overheating.
As well, China’s lower-than-expected rate of imports seemed to negatively affect the price of oil. Crude oil in New York was down 39 cents US to $102.07 US a barrel. Gold was up 70 cents US to $1,644.60 US an ounce.
The Canadian dollar was down 27 basis points to $1.0008 US.
Also in Asia, there was some disappointment among investors when the Bank of Japan failed to increase the amount of stimulus measures in operation.
On U.S. stock markets, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 14.04 points, or 0.11%, to 12,915.55 in early trading Tuesday. The Nasdaq composite index was ahead 4.51 points, or 0.15%, to 3,051.59. A day earlier, the Dow was down 130.55 points, or one%, while the Nasdaq dropped 33.42 points, or 1.08%.
The United Kingdom’s FTSE was down 55.08 points, or 0.96%, to 5,668.59. In France, the CAC fell 58.67 points, or 1.77%, to 3,261.14. Germany’s DAX declined 70.84 points, or 1.05%, to 6,704.42.
Japan’s Nikkei index was down 8.24 points, or 0.09%, to 9,538.02. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng fell 236.76 points, or 1.15%, to 20,356.24. Mainland China’s Shanghai composite was up 20.09 points, or 0.88%, to 2,305.86.
