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The pound pared losses against the U.S. dollar on Thursday in the wake of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s call for a Dec. 12 election to break the country’s deadlock over its exit from the European Union, while global stock markets edged up.

Johnson said in a letter to opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn he would give Parliament more time to approve his Brexit deal but that lawmakers must back a December election.

Sterling was last trading at $1.2857, down 0.46 per cent on the day, well off its lows of the session.

EU member states on Wednesday delayed a decision on whether to grant Britain a three-month Brexit extension.

Canada’s main stock index rose on Thursday as gains in shares of gold miners and a string of positive earnings helped offset a drop in Husky Energy following disappointing results.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was unofficially up 33.39 points, or 0.20 per cent, at 16,369.32.

Five of the index’s 11 major sectors gained, with the materials sector, which includes precious and base metals miners, leading the rally on the back of higher gold prices.

The energy sector slid 0.9 per cent as higher oil prices were offset by a 6.6-per-cent slump in shares of Husky Energy Inc after it reported a 50-per-cent drop in quarterly profit.

The financials sector was down 0.2 per cent, while the industrials sector rose 0.3 per cent.

Tech stocks jumped 2.4 per cent as Shopify Inc. rose 8.8 per cent and Celestica Inc. increased 2.9 per cent.

The benchmark S&P 500 edged higher on Thursday as strong results from Microsoft Corp and PayPal Holdings Inc offset dour results from 3M Co and Twitter Inc.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose on the strength of Microsoft and PayPal shares, while a decline in 3M shares weighed down the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Microsoft shares gained 2 per cent as the tech giant’s outlook for cloud computing services surpassed analysts’ expectations, while PayPal shares rose 8.3 per cent on the payments company’s strong full-year earnings forecast. Microsoft and PayPal were the top boosts to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

Shares of 3M dropped after the industrial conglomerate missed third-quarter sales estimates and lowered its full-year profit forecast. The company’s U.S. sales dropped 1.1 per cent, and its Asia-Pacific sales fell 5 per cent as industrial production slowed.

Twitter shares plummeted 21 per cent after the social networking company’s revenue and profit missed estimates, in part due to technical issues with its ad platform. The decline in Twitter shares capped gains on the S&P 500.

The results from 3M pointed to continued fallout from the U.S.-China trade dispute as tariffs have made business conditions uncertain for many companies, analysts said. Other companies, including Caterpillar Inc and Texas Instruments Inc, have attributed weak third-quarter results to trade-related issues.

“It’s showing us that the tariff situation continues to be a major concern for companies in how to spend their money,” said J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.

A speech from U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday underscored tensions between Washington and Beijing. Pence accused China of curtailing “rights and liberties” in Hong Kong but insisted that the United States does not seek to confront or to “de-couple” from its main economic rival.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 28.62 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 26,805.33, the S&P 500 gained 5.63 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 3,010.15 and the Nasdaq Composite added 66.00 points, or 0.81 per cent, to 8,185.80.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.30 per cent. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.59 per cent.

German companies, including Daimler, helped to boost Europe’s indexes.

The euro was down 0.19 per cent to $1.1108.

Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 2/32 in price to yield 1.766 per cent, from 1.759 per cent late on Wednesday.

In commodities markets, U.S. crude rose 26 cents to settle at $56.23 a barrel, while Brent rose 50 cents to settle at $61.67.

Reuters

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