The Toronto stock market had a mildly positive start to trading Monday as another dose of sub-par economic data from Asia reinforced hopes for central bank intervention to keep a flagging global economic recovery going.
The S&P/TSX Composite index moved into the green 5.52 points to begin the week at 11,896.41
The Canadian dollar moved lower by 0.07 cents to 100.77 cents U.S.
Stocks to watch this Monday morning include Research In Motion, which is looking to sell cloud services provider NewBay and some of the other minor assets it recently acquired, as part of a strategic review process, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Ensign Energy Services Inc reported a 16% rise in quarterly net profit on increased drilling in its international and U.S. markets but said it expects activity levels in North America to fall through the rest of the year.
AuRico Gold Inc reported a 10% fall in profit on lower gold production.
Pengrowth Energy Corp. posted a 65% fall in second-quarter profit on weak natural gas prices.
On the corporate front, engineering company SNC-Lavalin has appointed Robert Card, a former senior executive at CH2M Hill Companies Ltd., as SNC's new chief executive. The appointment followed the resignation of Pierre Duhaime, who stepped down amid controversy over millions in mysterious payments outside Canada.
SNC-Lavalin has been feeling the fallout from investigations into $56 million worth of payments that were directed through its Tunisian office to unknown sales agents during the Ghadafi regime.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange soared 8.78 points to 1,199.78. The Nasdaq Canada index subtracted 1.81 points to 351.86.
Eight of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher, led by gold, up 0.7%, while utilities and materials each progressed 0.4%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed by health-care, down 0.6%, consumer discretionaries, down 0.4%, and financials, sagging 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks opened lower Monday as concern about global growth weighed on the market.
Even so, the Dow Jones industrial average slipped 52.11 points soon after the opening bell to 13,155.84
The S&P 500 dropped 5.58 points to 1,400.29. The Nasdaq lopped off 11.80 points to 3,009.06.
Trading volume could be light with little major corporate or economic news expected, and many investors in summer vacation mode.
While there were no major developments out of Europe, investors remain nervous about the debt problems in Spain and Italy.
On the domestic front, the reporting of second-quarter corporate results is beginning to draw to a close, though Dow components Home Depot, Walmart and Cisco will all report earnings later this week.
Investors were also digesting this weekend's announcement that Republican Mitt Romney has selected Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate in this year's presidential election.
Groupon is expected to report quarterly earnings of three cents a share on $573 million U.S. in revenue, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.
Motorola Mobility, the Google-owned cellphone maker, announced it would cut 4,000 jobs, or a quarter of its workforce. The company also said it would consolidate a third of its 90 facilities. These changes come as Motorola lost money in 14 of the last 16 quarters. Shares of Google were up in early trading.
Barnes & Noble announced price cuts on its Nook e-reader and tablet devices Monday, as back-to-school shopping gets under way and amid speculation that Amazon will introduce a new version of its Kindle Fire. The company said price cuts will fall between $20 to $50 U.S.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury inched up, pushing the yield down to 1.64% from 1.65% late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil for September delivery gained back 84 cents to $93.71 U.S. a barrel.
Gold futures for December delivery added $1.42 to $1,624.20 U.S. an ounce.
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