The Toronto stock market pulled slightly ahead at the beginning of Thursday’s session, as traders look over earnings reports from some of Canada’s biggest corporations in the resource, financial, telecom and transportation sectors.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 9.73 points to kick off Thursday at 12,771.32
The Canadian dollar pointed downward 0.07 cents to 100.39 cents U.S.
BCE Inc. said quarterly net earnings were up 45.7% from a year earlier to $708 million or 91 cents per share. However, BCE’s adjusted earnings rose at a more. BCE shares moved ahead 26 cents to $44.78
It was a mixed picture for copper miner Teck Resources Inc. Earnings and revenue trounced analyst estimates, but its net profit fell to $145 million, or 25 cents per share, down from $637 million a year ago. Revenue dropped to $2.73 billion from $2.97 billion but that was still above the $2.58 billion that analysts expected. Teck shares retreated $1.14, or 3.1%, to $35.50
Manulife Financial Corp. more than doubled analyst projections with fourth-quarter net profit soaring to $1.06 billion. But core earnings came in at $537 million or 28 cents per share during the quarter, four cents below the consensus estimate. Manulife shares gathered 16 cents to $14.57
Air Canada posted fourth-quarter profit of $8 million, or three cents per diluted share, reversing a year-earlier net loss of $60 million or 22 cents per diluted share. Operating revenue rose to $2.84 billion from just under $2.7 billion.
Full-year figures at the Maple Leaf airline showed net income at $131 million, or 45 cents per diluted share on revenues of $12.1 billion, compared with a net loss of $249 million or 92 cents per diluted share on revenue of $11.6 billion in the same 2011 period. Air Canada shares dipped three cents to $2.42
On the economic docket, Statistics Canada reported this morning that its new housing price index perked 0.2% in December, after a 0.1% increase the month before.
Moreover, the nation’s number crunchers told us that the value of building permits issued by Canadian municipalities slid 11.2% to $5.7 billion in December, following a 14.5% decline in November. Both residential and non-residential sectors announced fewer builds during the last month of 2012.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 2.20 points to 1,209.52
In all, nine of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher to begin the day, led by health-care, stronger by 0.9%, information technology, beaming up 0.8%, and consumer staples, 0.5% more solid.
The five laggards were weighed by metals and mining, off 1%, while global base metals fell 0.5% and gold faded 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. blue-chips opened significantly lower Thursday as investors digested a mixed bag of economic news and slew of earnings results.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average faltered 82.76 points to 13,903.80
The S&P 500 index sifted off 2.03 points to 1,510.09. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite gave back 11.76 points to 3,156.72
In corporate news, shares of Apple rose after activist investor David Einhorn publicly called for Apple to give some of its $137 billion U.S. cash hoard to back to shareholders in the form of preferred stock.
Sprint Nextel shares edged lower after the cellphone carrier reported a fourth-quarter loss in line with expectations.
Shares of Sony dropped after the electronics manufacturer reported a surprising third -quarter loss.
Alcatel Lucent posted another quarterly loss, yet shares rose on news that CEO Ben Verwaayen is resigning from his post.
Akamai Technologies shares plunged after the company, which provides Internet content delivery, cut its revenue forecasts.Shares of Macy's rose following the retailer's announcement that same-store sales rose 11.7% in January.
Shares of Blackberry gained ground after the smartphone maker said the Canadian launch of its new Z10 smartphone was its best launch ever.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters shares tumbled Thursday morning after the company issued a weak outlook for sales growth.
News Corp. reported earnings that matched analysts' expectations Wednesday but shares declined on the company's downbeat earnings guidance for the year.
LinkedIn headlines the group of companies reporting after markets close.
Economically speaking, weekly initial jobless claims came in at 366,000, down 5,000 from the previous week but above forecasts.
Meanwhile, the nation's business productivity dropped 2% in 2012's fourth quarter, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which was more than economists were expecting.
In the afternoon, the U.S. Federal Reserve will release data on consumer credit for December.
Prices on the 10-year U.S. Treasury inched forward, lowering yields to 1.96% from Wednesday’s 1.97%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices took on 20 cents to $96.82 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slid $12.10 to $1,666.70 U.S. an ounce.
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