North American markets were on the advance at midday Monday, as commodities gained and comments from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke boosted investor optimism.
At midday in Toronto, the benchmark S&P/TSX composite index had gained about 88 points, or 0.70 per cent, to 12,554.
The price of crude oil was up 14 cents to $107.01 US a barrel, and gold had gained $23.60 to $1,686.00 US an ounce.
The Canadian dollar was up 68 basis points to $1.0081 US in late-morning trading.
Bernanke told an audience in Virginia that while the country's unemployment rate is improving, the economy still needs help to create jobs.
"Bernanke is in a difficult situation because the Federal Reserve is mostly relying on Fed's speech as opposed to money to move markets," David Kelly, chief market strategist at JPMorgan Funds in New York, told Bloomberg. "What he's trying to say is that, regardless of the state of the economy, they're going to be pretty slow to remove stimulus. As long as the economy continues to improve, that will encourage money to move into equity markets."
The Dow Jones industrial average was up about 125 points, or 0.95 per cent, to 13,206 at midday, and the Nasdaq composite index was ahead 39 points, or 1.28 per cent, at 3,107.22.
In Asia on Monday, Tokyo's Nikkei edged up 0.07 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was unchanged. In Europe, London's FTSE roe 0.82 per cent, the CAC in Paris gained 0.74 per cent, and Frankfurt's DAX advanced 1.20 per cent.
