Toronto stock indices found their gains limited on Friday, after a proposal from U.S. Republican House Leader John Boehner failed to gain enough support from his party members, deepening uncertainty over the chances of a U.S. budget deal by year-end.
The S&P/TSX composite index eked up 3.61 points to begin Friday at 12,392.32
The Canadian dollar erased 0.61 cents to 100.64 cents U.S.
Research In Motion shares tumbled more than 10% on Thursday after the company reported the first ever decline in its subscriber numbers and outlined plans to transform the way it charges for its BlackBerry services.
The main unit of media and telecom company Cogeco Inc., said it would buy PEER 1 Network Enterprises Inc for about $526 million to expand its cloud computing and data hosting services.
Lufthansa, United Airlines and Air Canada have offered to make slots available to competitors on the Frankfurt to New York route to try to resolve a European Union anti-trust enquiry into their transatlantic cooperation deal.
The oil giant ConocoPhillips will sell its Nigerian businesses to Canadian-based Oando Energy Resources Inc. for about $1.79 billion, the companies said on Thursday.
Teck Resources Ltd said it expects first quarter coal production will be unscathed by damage to a berth at key shipping point, Westshore Terminals.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that real gross domestic product crept up 0.1% in October, following no growth in September and a 0.1% decline in August.
Moreover, consumer prices rose 0.8% in the 12 months to November, following a 1.2% gain in October. The November increase was the smallest year-over-year gain in the Consumer Price Index since October 2009.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eased 7.12 points to 1,173.38
All but four of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower early Friday. Information technology issues took a 5.1% tumble, while global base metals slid 0.7%, metals and mining fell 0.5%.
The four gaining groups were led by gold, up 1.1%, materials, up 0.6%, and telecoms, ahead 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks fell on fiscal cliff fears Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 93.45 points to open Friday at 13,218.30
The S&P 500 moved down 13.26 points to 1,430.43. The Nasdaq Composite slumped 31.62 points to 3,018.77.
Shares of Blackberry maker Research in Motion fell 15%, after the company reported Thursday afternoon that sales for the latest quarter fell 47%.
Nokia announced an agreement to settle all patent claims with RIM early Friday, however, financial terms were not disclosed.
Nike shares rose 4% after the apparel giant posted quarterly earnings Thursday afternoon that beat expectations.
Shares of Walgreens fell 2.8% Friday, after the company's quarterly results showed earnings and sales dropped versus a year ago.
Lawmakers in the House failed to support the so-called "Plan B", a proposal backed by House Speaker John Boehner, late Thursday.
The White House had already threatened to veto that plan, saying it would bring only "minimal" changes in projected budget deficits, but its failure underscored the lack of progress on Capitol Hill as the cliff draws nearer.
Economically speaking, data released by the U.S. government Friday morning showed that personal income rose 0.6% in November, while spending increased 0.4% -- both figures came in higher than expected.
A report on consumer sentiment was due from the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters this morning.
Treasury prices regained some ground, lowering yields on the 10-year note to 1.74% from Thursday’s 1.80%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices plunged $1.80 to $88.33 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices recovered $6.50 to $1,652.40 U.S. an ounce.
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