TORONTO -- Investors shrugged off the third presidential impeachment in U.S. history to push North American stock markets to record territory Thursday on positive signals about the trade deal with China.

The impeachment of Donald Trump is a big story that nobody cares about, said Michael Currie, vice-president and investment adviser at TD Wealth

"It appears to be having zero effect," he said of the markets. "You would have expected maybe a little uncertainty, a little confusion, a little up and down, but just business as usual. It's like it didn't even happen."

That's because investors fully expect the Senate won't convict Trump and remove him from office.

While political machinations in Washington, D.C., didn't push up markets, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's comments that a partial trade deal with China is completed and will be signed in January did.

"That got people continuing their optimism they've had all month," Currie added in an interview.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 32.06 points at 17,064.00, short of the record 64 points higher.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 137.68 points at 28,376.96. The S&P 500 index was up 14.23 points at 3,205.37, while the Nasdaq composite was up 59.49 points at 8,887.22.

The three U.S. markets set new highs with the S&P surpassing 3,200 for the first time.

The Canadian dollar traded for 76.21 cents US compared with an average of 76.23 cents US on Wednesday.

Four of the major sectors on the TSX gained more than one per cent, led by health care, energy, technology and telecommunications.

Marijuana producers sustained a rebound led by Hexo Corp. and Aurora Cannabis Inc., which climbed 4.7 and 4.2 per cent respectively.

Energy was higher on the positive trade outlook sending commodity prices higher. Shares of Crescent Point Energy was up 5.3 per cent.

The February crude contract was up 33 cents at US$61.18 per barrel, the highest level in three month. It was helped by Wednesday's report pointing to a fall in U.S. crude supplies. The January natural gas contract was down 1.3 cents at US$2.27 per mmBTU.

Blackberry Ltd. rose 3.1 per cent to push up technology, in line with Nasdaq's climb.

Six sectors fell slightly, including materials.

The February gold contract rose to a two-week high, gaining US$5.70 at US$1,484.40 an ounce while the March copper contract was up 1.4 cents at US$2.83 a pound.

Currie said markets could continue to gain over the remainder of 2019 since December is traditionally the best performing month of the year.

"So most of the betting is a continuation of the up trend at least for the month of December which is traditionally quite strong."