German confidence moves TSX up

Photo: Contributed

The Toronto stock market is slightly higher amid reassuring data on investor optimism suggesting Germany will be able to avoid slipping into recession.

Traders also looked to the start of the U.S. Federal Reserve's meeting on interest rates and hoped for a resolution to the fiscal cliff crisis which threatens to push the U.S. back into recession.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 16.57 points to 12,247.04 while the Canadian dollar rose 0.04 of a cent to 101.36 cents US.

Hopes for further Fed stimulus helped push the Dow Jones industrials up 65.97 points to 13,235.85, the Nasdaq rose 25.06 points to 3,012.02 and the S&P 500 index was 7.46 points higher at 1,426.01.

On the corporate front, Hudson's Bay Co. (TSX:HBC) reported its loss from continuing operations was $8.5 million or eight cents per share in the third quarter. That compared with a loss from continuing operations of $7.5 million or seven cents per share in the same year-earlier period.

Hudson's Bay Co. also said it will initiate a quarterly dividend of just over nine cents per share and its shares dipped a penny to $16.80.