Markets in Toronto began Thursday lower, with investors absorbing earnings from major U.S. companies, and a meeting in Europe began designed to make progress in dealing with the region's debt crisis
The S&P/TSX composite index was off 2.17 points to begin Thursday at 12,459.08
The Canadian dollar slid 0.26 cents to 102 cents U.S.
Forbes & Manhattan Coal said employees at its Magdalena and Aviemore underground mines in South Africa are on strike seeking higher wages. Forbes shares were unchanged in price at 70 cents.
Telus Corp. said its shareholders voted on Wednesday in favour of a proposal to exchange the company's non-voting shares for common shares on a one-for-one basis, dealing a blow to top stakeholder Mason Capital, which had argued voting class holders should receive a premium. Telus shares gained 48 cents to $63.37.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported this morning that wholesale sales improved 0.5% in August to $49.7 billion, reversing a two-month losing trend. The main agents were higher sales in the food, beverage and tobacco subsector.
The agency also said that 534,400 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance benefits in August, up 16,400, or 3.2%, from July. The figure had been somewhat stagnant for months.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 4.22 points to 1,304.
The 14 subgroups were evenly split between gainers and losers. Global base metals had the biggest gains at 0.4%, while telecoms and consumer discretionary stocks tacked on 0.3% each.
The seven laggards were weighed mostly by gold, off 1.1%, while materials shed 0.5%, and health-care stocks dipped 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks opened lower Thursday as investors keep an eye on Europe and take in the latest round of corporate results and weekly jobless claims.
The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 3.60 points to begin the session at 13,553.40.
The S&P 500 index gave back 1.94 to 1,458.97, while the Nasdaq fell 11.33 to 3,092.79
Investors will be on the lookout for any news out of a two-day summit of European leaders in Brussels convened to discuss closer ties between euro-zone countries. Leaders are expected to discuss proposed reforms of the banking sector and more integrated budget policies.
Morgan Stanley reported earnings before the opening bell that topped analysts' forecasts, posting earnings per share of 28 cents and revenue of $7.6 billion U.S. -- compared to the 24 cents a share and $6.4 billion U.S. in revenue that had been expected.
Nokia logged its sixth straight quarterly loss, while Verizon posted earnings that met expectations.
Shares of Travelers Cos. jumped after the insurer reported that income more than doubled in the quarter, beating expectations, thanks to lower losses from natural disasters.
Blackstone is also set to report results in the morning, while earnings from Microsoft and Google are due out after the bell.
Economically speaking, a report on initial jobless claims showed that the number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits jumped by 46,000 to 388,000 last week. That's higher than the 360,000 claims economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected.
Later this morning, the Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve will release the October edition of its business outlook survey.
The price of the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury recovered some ground, lowering the yield to 1.80% from Wednesday’s 1.81%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lost a dollar to $91.12 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices were down $7.70 to $1,745.80 U.S. an ounce.
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