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(CBC)
The Toronto stock market closed above 11,000 on Thursday as investor relief over U.S. economic growth helped claw back losses racked up during a four-day tumble.
The S&P/TSX composite index surged 269.9 points to 11,075.2 after the U.S. Commerce Department reported that the country's gross domestic product rose at a 3.5 per cent annualized pace during the July to September period, slightly better than the 3.3 per cent growth that economists had expected.
It was the first time the U.S. economy has grown since early 2008 and a sign the recession there has ended.
"I don't know that it was convincing enough to make everyone feel good again," said Ted Whitehead, vice-president and senior portfolio manager at MFC Global Investment Management, an asset-management firm with offices in Canada and the United States.
"We can't keep stimulating the economy [and] with the consumer still strapped, people are kind of questioning what's next."
The Toronto market lost 248 points Wednesday, adding to a 728-point loss over four straight sessions after a disappointing report on sales of new U.S. homes helped ignite worries about the pace of a recovery.
The Canadian dollar closed up 1.00 cents to 93.72 cents US.
The December crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $2.41 to finish trading at $79.87 US a barrel. On Tuesday, a report in the Financial Times newspaper suggested Saudi Arabia is moving to abandon the West Texas Intermediate oil contract as the benchmark for pricing its oil.
New York indexes also charged ahead, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 199.89 points to 9962.58.
The Nasdaq composite index climbed 37.94 points to 2097.55, while the S&P 500 index was up 23.48 points to 1066.11.



