Markets in Toronto opened slightly higher on Friday, after robust earnings from JPMorgan marked a strong start for the U.S. banks earnings season.
The S&P/TSX composite index began Friday up 4.29 points to 12,238.24
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.06 cents to 102.11 cents U.S.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that Canada wants a growing relationship with China, but that investments must be scrutinized from a national security perspective.
One company to watch this morning is Canadian Pacific Railway, who said that its CFO Kathryn McQuade will retire on Nov. 1, the fourth senior executive to leave Canada's second-largest railroad, after an intense proxy battle earlier this year. CP shares doffed a penny to $86.40 in the trading day’s first hour.
Information technology stocks gathered a bit of steam, MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates hiking 1.6%, and Research In Motion plodding ahead 0.4%.
Among energy plays, Niko Resources and Legacy Oil + Gas each galloped ahead 1.6% in the early going.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gave back 4.79 points to 1,295.15
The 14 Toronto subgroups were evenly split between gainers and losers. Information technology stocks gained 0.4%, while energy and utilities progressed 0.2% each.
Among the half-dozen laggards, health-care stocks sagged 0.4%, while telecoms and financials dropped 0.1% each.
Consumer discretionary and consumer staple stocks were both flat in the first hour.
ON WALLSTREET
Equities inched higher at the opening bell Friday, as investors digested mixed corporate results and economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial average strengthened 57.29 points to 13,383.70
The S&P 500 squeezed ahead 0.61 points to 1,433.45, while the tech-rich Nasdaq improved 8.45 points to 3,057.86.
Despite a quarterly report that showed record profits, shares of JPMorgan fell 1%. JPMorgan reported quarterly earnings of $1.40 U.S. per share on revenue of $25.9 billion U.S., beating expectations on both. CEO Jamie Dimon credited the results by saying that the housing market has "turned the corner."
Wells Fargo reported earnings of 88 cents per share -- in line with forecasts -- but its revenue of $21.2 billion U.S. fell short by almost $300 million U.S. The bank's shares fell 3.5%.
Shares of AMD sank after the chip maker cut its revenue forecast for the third quarter.
Economically speaking, a report by the U.S. Labor Department showed producer prices rose 1.1% in September, more than anticipated. Government officials chalked much of that up to spikes in food and energy prices, noting that excluding those increases, the prices of finished goods remained unchanged from the previous month.
The only report left for the day comes when the University of Michigan will report its Consumer Sentiment Index for October, which experts say likely ticked up to 78.5 from 78.3 the previous month.
The price of the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury nipped ahead, pushing the yield down to 1.66% from 1.68% late Thursday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices rose 15 cents to $91.21 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices fell $4.30 to $1,766.40 U.S. an ounce.
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