The Toronto stock market was lower Monday amid falling commodity prices, while traders looked to a heavy week of earnings news from corporate Canada.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 53.08 points to close Monday at 12,748.15
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.17 cent to 99.56 cents U.S.
BlackBerry also weighed on the TSX, falling 71 cents, or 4.3%, to $15.80 as Forbes reported that Home Depot has decided to ditch the approximately 10,000 BlackBerry smartphones used by its executives. The home improvement chain is reportedly supplying its corporate staff with Apple’s iPhone.
The TSX gold sector lost ground as Goldcorp Inc. shed 77 cents to $35.46.
The energy sector fell as Imperial Oil lost 49 cents to $42.56.
The base metals sector was down as March copper was four cents lower at $3.72 U.S. a pound. Taseko Mines dipped 12 cents to $3.21.
Cameco Corp. reported an 83% drop in net earnings in its fourth quarter to $45 million, or 11 cents per diluted share, largely due to a $168-million writedown on its Kintyre project in Australia and lower profits from its uranium business.
Adjusted earnings came in at 60 cents, beating forecasts of 41 cents but Cameco’s shares fell 65 cents, or 3%, to $21.06.
The industrials sector was the leading advancer as Canadian Pacific Railway climbed $2.41 to $116.17.
Financials also lifted the TSX as Manulife Financial ran up 49 cents to $15.33.
The fourth-quarter earnings season is winding down in the U.S. but Canadian investors will be taking in a slew of earnings reports this week.
Pipeline company TransCanada posts earnings Tuesday. Over the rest of the week, traders will take in reports from resource giants including Talisman Energy, Cenovus Energy, gas giant EnCana Corp. and Barrick Gold.
WestJet Airlines is boosting its base in Western Canada by launching its Encore regional service in June to British Columbia’s energy region using the airline’s first Bombardier turboprops.
Additional routes will be added as it takes delivery of five more planes by the end of the year and WestJet shares ducked back 16 cents to $21.23.
Brookfield Asset Management Inc. says it will pay $414 million U.S. to buy a portfolio of 19 apartment communities in three states in the U.S. Southeast. Most of the 4,892 units included in the deal are concentrated in Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., but some are also in the neighbouring states of South Carolina and Virginia. Brookfield shares docked five cents to $38.77.
Onex Corp and its affiliates have agreed to sell their 50% interest in RSI Home Products for approximately $323 million U.S. The Onex Group invested $318 million in October 2008 to acquire RSI preferred equity.
The Toronto-based group says it will have received $471 million U.S., including prior distributions, when the sale closes. Onex shares gave back 10 cents at $44.30.
Alacer Gold Corp. will pay a special dividend to distribute $70 million in cash from the sale of its 49% interest in the Frog’s Lake mine in Australia.
The sale is part of a strategic review conducted by the Toronto-listed company, whose shares ran ahead 15 cents to $4.55.
There was no major Canadian data released Monday.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 9.50 points to 1,196.31
Nine of the 14 Toronto subgroups lost ground, weighed by gold, down 1.9%, while materials lost 1.4% and information technology stocks subsided 0.8%.
The four gainers were led by industrials, up 0.8%, industrials, up 0.3%, and financials were up 0.2%. Health-care stocks were flat on the day.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks on American exchanges drifted lower, as investors continued to take a breather after the recent run-up that pushed the Dow and S&P 500 near all-time highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 21.73 points to close at 13,971.20
The S&P 500 index dipped 0.57 points to 1,517.36. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite slipped 1.87 points to 3,192
Markets have enjoyed something of a streak so far in 2013. The Dow and S&P 500 are both up nearly 7% and still within range of their all-time highs, while the NASDAQ has gained nearly 6%.
So far, two-thirds of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported results for the fourth quarter, with 70% of them beating forecasts
This week, a few more quarterly results are expected from large corporations, including Coca-Cola, General Motors and PepsiCo.
In company news, Google disclosed late Friday that former CEO and executive chairman Eric Schmidt plans to sell 3.2 million shares of his stock in the company, worth about $2.5 billion U.S. Shares of Google were lower.
Shares of Tesla Motors nearly 3% in early trading after the New York Times published a harsh review of the Model S sedan over the weekend.
Shares of Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk sank 14% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it could not approve the company's diabetes drug. Shares of Sanofi, which makes a rival diabetes drug, were up 3%.
On the economic front, the main event this week will probably be Wednesday's retail sales data. Economists expect modest improvement in sales during January
Prices on the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained back what was lost during the day, lowering yields to Friday’s 1.95%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices recovered $1.25 to $96.97 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dropped $16.60 to $1,650.30 U.S. an ounce.
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