The Toronto stock market was in the red Friday after four straight days of gains, with traders focused on corporate developments and earnings misses.
The S&P/TSX composite fell 50.14 points Friday to finish the day and the week at 12,415.98
The Canadian dollar slid 0.83 cents to 100.67 cents U.S.
Shares in radio, TV and billboard company Astral Media tumbled after the federal broadcast regulator unexpectedly blocked a planned sale to telecom BCE Inc. in a deal worth about $3.4 billion.
BCE says it will ask the federal Cabinet to intervene but a spokesman for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission says any appeal of Thursday’s CRTC’s decision would have to go to the Federal Court of Appeal.
BCE shares declined 74 cents to $42.89 while Astral fell $7.50, or nearly 16%, to $39.50 as traders weighed the chances of a successful appeal.
The tech sector was down in the wake of the fortunes of Microsoft, with CGI Group down 56 cents to $25.60.
Commodity prices were lower and the mining sector was off as December copper lost seven cents to $3.68 U.S a pound. Thompson Creek Metals declined 14 cents, or 4.8%, to $2.77 while Taseko Mines eased 10 cents, or 3.4%, to $2.81.
The TSX energy sector slipped, as Cenovus Energy lost 39 cents to $34.14.
Among gold plays, one of the few bright spots, Goldcorp Inc. gained 89 cents, or 2.1%, to $43.09
On the economic scroll, inflation advanced at the same rate in September as it did in August. Figures released this morning by Statistics Canada revealed that consumer prices rose 1.2% in the 12 months to September, powered mostly by hikes in prices for gasoline and electricity.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange struggled to a gain of 3.28 points to 1,315.62
All but two of the 14 Toronto subgroups were down on the day. Information technology, health-care and consumer discretionary stocks each descended 1.3%
The two gainers were gold, ahead 1.3%, while materials improved 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
A slew of weak earnings reports sent investors reeling Friday and pushed all three indexes down significantly, a selloff that accelerated throughout the day.
The Dow Jones Industrial average staggered 205.43 points, or 1.5% -- its worst one-day percentage loss since March -- to conclude trading at 13,343.50. Ironically, the header the market took came on the 25th anniversary of "Black Monday", when the Dow lost 22% of its strength on just one dreadful October day in 1987.
The S&P 500 index collapsed 23.96 to 1,433.38, while the Nasdaq tumbled 67.24 to 3,005.62
The tech sector continued to disappoint after two tech giants, Microsoft and Google, reported results that fell short of expectations.
Sales were flat for Microsoft, while Google missed analysts' estimates on both sales and profit when it accidentally reported earnings ahead of schedule. The stock of both companies pulled down the indexes with each dropping more than 1.5%.
McDonald's and General Electric were the biggest drags on the Dow, after reporting earnings that fell short of forecasts Friday morning.
By Friday, after 23% of companies released earnings, analysts expect third-quarter earnings for the S&P 500 to come in at 0.04%, according to S&P Capital IQ. That would be the lowest expected growth rate since the third quarter of 2009.
Honeywell posted third-quarter profits that topped forecasts, but revenue disappointed.
Sandisk shares climbed 8%, following quarterly results late Thursday that trounced expectations.
Advanced Micro Devices, another PC maker, took a big hit, with shares falling 15%, following the company's warnings that it could see a sharp drop in third quarter revenues.
Shares of chip maker Marvell Technology Group also dropped nearly 15% after cutting its quarter forecast.
Economically speaking, the National Association of Realtors said September's existing home sales came in at an annual rate of 4.75 million. That was down from the 4.83 million pace the previous month but up 11% from the rate of sales a year earlier.
The price of the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury gained, weighing the yield down to 1.77% from Thursday’s 1.83%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell $1.96 to $90.14 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices were down $22.30 to $1,722.40. U.S. an ounce.
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