Photo: The Canadian Press

TORONTO — North American markets were mixed, with some indexes posting modest gains on a day where an update from the U.S. Federal Reserve and a flood of earnings reports rippled into stock movement.

Michael Currie, vice-president and investment adviser at TD Wealth, said he struggled to find companies that didn’t report strong earnings this quarter although noted many North American stocks were flat because they had already gained so much in previous months.

An exception to that was Tilray Inc., one of the largest cannabis producers, which saw its shares surge 25.08%.

“Tilray is certainly the story of the day,” Currie said.

“Analysts were expecting a loss of 25 per cent per share but they ended up making money … they pretty much had everything you want to hear from a company in terms of beating expectations and putting up a profit.”

Cannabis stocks in general were what held up Canada’s main stock index, with the S&P/TSX composite’s health-care index up by 9.95% on the day.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 57.05 points at 20,230.40, with Currie saying the exchange would have been fairly flat if it weren’t for strong performances from cannabis stocks.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 127.59 points at 34,930.93. The S&P 500 index was down 0.82 points at 4,400.64, while the Nasdaq composite was up 102.00 points at 14,762.58.

In the U.S., markets rose slightly after the Federal Reserve’s update started.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signalled that the U.S. would stay the current course, Currie said, with no immediate change to interest rates or stimulus.

While the U.S. economy is recovering, Currie said it hasn’t recovered quite enough for the U.S. to taper stimulus measures.

There was little change in the Canadian dollar, with the loonie trading for 79.58 cents US compared with 79.50 cents US on Tuesday.