Canada’s main stock index opened higher on Tuesday, with consumer staples’ shares leading the gains, as investors assessed a series of economic data out of the U.S. amid growing expectations of an imminent rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

At 9:31 a.m. ET, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 0.2 per cent at 30,655.90 points

Wall Street’s main indexes were mixed at the open on Tuesday as investors took stock of a series of delayed economic data to gauge the health of the U.S. economy, while Alphabet gained after a report said Meta was in talks to spend billions on the Google parent’s chips.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 34.1 points, or 0.07 per cent, at the open to 46,482.36. The S&P 500 fell 8.1 points, or 0.12 per cent, at the open to 6,697.03​, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 69.2 points, or 0.30 per cent, to 22,802.847 at the opening bell.

A Commerce Department report showed retail sales increased 0.2 per cent in September, less than the 0.4 per cent rise that economists polled by Reuters were anticipating, at a time when U.S. tariffs and a string of corporate layoffs have weighed on sentiment.

A separate report showed producer prices rebounded in September as the cost of energy goods surged and producers passed on some tariffs.

Trader bets for an interest rate cut of 25 basis points next month were little changed following the data and were last at an 84.7-per-cent chance, doubling from around 40 per cent last week, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.

Market sentiment has recently been supported by growing bets the Federal Reserve will lower borrowing costs in December following dovish remarks by voting members on the Federal Open Market Committee such as John Williams and Christopher Waller.

“The fact the parade of Fed speakers is going to end soon with the quiet period kicking in today, we’ll likely have the potential for the rate cut kind of sit where it is. And while it might be a split decision, we’re likely to get another rate cut and that’s likely a positive for markets,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth.

Alphabet’s shares were a standout, jumping 1.3 per cent in early trading after a report said Facebook-parent Meta Platforms was in discussions to use Google’s AI chips in its data centers from 2027 and rent chips from Google Cloud by next year.

Broadcom, which helps Alphabet make its AI chips also gained 1.3 per cent, while Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices , which currently dominate the AI chips sector, fell nearly 4.7 per cent and 7.5 per cent, respectively.

Shares of the Google parent have rallied almost 70 per cent this year, outperforming other megacaps and bringing it close to the prized US$4-trillion market capitalization.

The Nasdaq logged its biggest one-day gain in six months on Monday, as investors scooped up tech stocks following several bouts of selling in recent weeks driven by worries of stretched valuations in the sector and high AI spending by large companies.

Meanwhile, the hunt for the next Fed Chair was on, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying the announcement could come as soon as pre-Christmas.

Among other stocks, U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba rose 1.2 per cent after the Chinese e-commerce giant beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly revenue.

European and Asian shares mostly gained on Tuesday after U.S. stocks rallied on hopes the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates soon.

The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1 per cent.

Germany’s DAX edged 0.1 per cent lower to 23,216.76 and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.1 per cent to 7,965.77. Britain’s FTSE 100 likewise gained 0.1 per cent, to 9,542.55.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 picked up 0.1 per cent to 48,659.52 as a plunge in technology giant SoftBank’s shares weighed on the market. It fell 10.3 per cent on concerns that returns from its heavy investments in OpenAI may be threatened by the next generation Gemini artificial intelligence model that Google launched last week.

In South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.3 per cent to 3,857.78. Taiwan’s Taiex jumped 1.5 per cent.

Chinese markets also advanced. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng climbed 0.7 per cent to 25,894.55, while the Shanghai Composite index jumped 0.9 per cent to 3,870.02.

Australia’s S&P/ASX rebounded to edge 0.1 per cent higher, closing at 8,537.00.

In other dealings early Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 47 US cents to US$58.37 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, shed 49 US cents to US$62.23 per barrel.

The dollar fell to 156.30 Japanese yen from 156.91 yen. The euro rose to US$1.1534 from US$1.1521.

Bitcoin rose 1.6 per cent to US$86,836. It was near US$125,000 last month.

Reuters and The Associated Press