Stock market background design
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Major North American markets were closed for a holiday after a positive week that saw Bay and Wall Street’s major markets make gains following a tumultuous period earlier this month.

The Toronto stock market was closed for a provincial holiday, while south of the border U.S. stock markets were closed for Presidents Day.

Both re-open Tuesday after a strong week that saw the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index rise nearly 3% since closing on Friday, Feb. 9.

In New York last week, the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 index gained more than 4%, while the Nasdaq composite index advanced more than 5%

On international money markets Monday, the Canadian dollar was at US80¢, according to the Bank of Canada’s website. On Friday, its average trading value was US79.74¢.

On commodities markets, April crude contracts were up US82 at US$62.37 per barrel, April gold was down US$7.30 at US$1,348.90 per ounce, March natural gas was up about a penny at roughly US$2.57 per mmBTU, and March copper was down US4¢ at roughly US$3.21 per pound shortly after 4 p.m. ET.