Canada's main stock index opened higher on Thursday, buoyed by stronger U.S. economic data and hopes it will support commodity price gains.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 53.66 points in the first hour to 12,431.56
The Canadian dollar slid 0.07 cents to 100.61 cents U.S.
Among Canadian stocks to watch this morning, Quebecor Inc. said its fourth-quarter profit rose 83%, helped in part by lower expenses and strength in its telecommunications business.
Transat AT Inc. reported a wider first-quarter loss, hurt mainly by high fuel costs
Specialty food whiz Premium Brands Holdings Corp. reported a 63% fall in fourth-quarter profit hurt mainly by high input costs.
Fairborne Energy Ltd. said it may put itself up for sale as it explores strategic options to increase shareholder value, with other alternatives including a merger, recapitalization and the selling of assets.
Oil and gas producer Pacific Rubiales posted higher fourth-quarter profit on increased production at its Rubiales and Quifa SW oil fields.
Birchcliff Energy's fourth-quarter profit more than halved, hurt by declining natural gas prices in North America.
Capstone Mining Corp. reported its quarterly profit missed analysts' estimates as a surge in copper production was offset by higher expenses and the company expects a modest increase in production in 2012.
In the economic docket, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) said national resale housing activity improved 1.4% in February 2012 after having declined in January. CREA also said the number of newly listed homes climbed 1.9% from January to February.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 3.13 points to 1,597.48, while the Nasdaq Canada index moved 1.33 points higher to 411.90
All but three of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher to begin the day. Health-care stocks shot higher by 0.7%, while global base metals and industrials added 0.6% each.
The three laggards were consumer staples, real-estate and telecoms, down 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, investors headed into Thursday looking for further evidence that the U.S. economy is on the road to recovery, but showed little reaction to a handful of economic reports.
The Dow Jones Industrials sagged 7.19 points to begin Thursday at 13,186.90.
The S&P 500 tacked on 0.09 points to 1,394.37, while the Nasdaq inched up 2.25 points to 3,042.98.
Bank stocks have been in focus this week following the results of the Federal Reserve's latest stress tests, which said a majority of the nation's largest banks would be able to weather another deep recession.
But the Fed said four institutions -- including Citigroup and Metlife -- would likely need to raise more capital in the event of a severe financial shock or economic downturn.
Cisco Systems of San Jose, Calif., announced on Thursday its $5-billion U.S. bid to buy NDS Group Ltd., a British provider of video software with 5,000 employees.
NDS is privately held by News Corp. and Permira.
Publishing company Scholastic reported quarterly results Thursday morning, and discount retailer Ross Stores is expected to post results.
Scholastic reported revenue of $468 million U.S. and a loss per share of 10 cents U.S., a much better performance than the $393 million U.S. in revenue and 70 cent-U.S.-per-share loss that analysts had expected.
Ross Stores is expected to report earnings of 85 cents a share on $2.39 billion in revenue.
Capital One Financial shares dropped 1.5% in premarket trading after the company announced a $1.25 billion U.S. common stock offering on Wednesday to help finance its acquisition of HSBC's U.S. credit card business.
Also, Apple Inc. jumped nearly 2% in premarket trading, nearly touching the $600 U.S. per share benchmark.
Overall, U.S. stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, one day after a big advance, as declines in bank stocks vied with strength in the technology sector.
Economically speaking, initial unemployment claims for the week ended March 10 fell to 351,000, compared to 365,000 the prior week. That was slightly less than the forecast of 355,000, according to a survey of analysts by Briefing.com.
Producer prices for February increased 0.4%, which was slightly less than the expected increase of 0.5%. That's compared to January, when the PPI ticked up by 0.1%.
The Philadelphia Fed's Business Outlook Survey index is expected to stand at 12.5, up from 10.2 in the month prior.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury dropped, pushing the yield up to 2.29% from 2.27% late Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil for February delivery subsided 25 cents to $105.18 U.S. a barrel.
Gold futures for April delivery rose $1.50 to $1,644.40 U.S. an ounce.
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