North American stock markets stage dramatic surge to cap volatile day

WATCH ABOVE: The wild ride on Wall Street evened out Wednesday – with the markets breaking their losing streak to close in positive territory. Marlie Hall reports

TORONTO – North American markets surged dramatically in the final hour of trading on Wednesday, continuing more than a week of extreme volatility and steep plunges that have left traders with seemingly nowhere to run and few places to hide.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite finished 230.6 points higher at 13,381.2 after having seen an early triple-digit gain evaporate into a small loss by midday amid ongoing worries over the state of China’s economy.

The heavily weighted financial and energy sectors lent some support to the market after being hit hard in the sell-off over the past week that has seen the TSX shed more than 1,100 points, even factoring in a 100-point bounce-back on Tuesday.

However, other resource sectors continued to suffer, with metals and mining the leading decliner, down 4.31 per cent. Global gold was the second-worst performer, down 3.71 per cent.

MORE: North American stock market rebound falters, Dow plunges late 

In New York, markets turned positive after six days of heavy losses, including a more than 200-point slide on the Dow Tuesday after a strong, day-long rally fizzled in the final hour.

The Dow Jones industrial average soared more than 600 points to 16,285.71, recapturing a solid portion of the almost 1,350 points it gave up over the previous six sessions. The S&P 500 rose 72.9 points to 1,940.52 and the Nasdaq jumped 191 points to 4,697.

On the commodity markets, benchmark October oil was down 37 cents at US$38.94 a barrel, while September natural gas was unchanged at US$2.70 per thousand cubic feet. September copper plunged seven cents to US$2.25 a pound while December gold lost $12 to US$1,126 an ounce.

The Canadian dollar, which hit lows Tuesday that had not been seen in 11 years, was up 0.12 of a U.S. cent at 75.05 cents US.

Stock markets around the world have been in flux for more than a week amid deep plunges on China’s main market and a decision by its central bank to devaluate the yuan in a move to simulate its slowing economy.

On Wednesday, China’s Shanghai index fell another 1.2 per cent, following declines of 8.5 per cent Monday and 7.6 per cent Tuesday. The smaller Shenzhen Composite lost 3.1 per cent

MORE: 5 reasons why China’s ‘new normal’ is rattling world markets

Other Asian markets were mixed, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 rising 3.2 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.5 per cent.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX gave back 1.4 per cent, while France’s CAC 40 fell 1.6 per cent and Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 1.6 per cent.