The Toronto stock market settled back in the first hour, after some initial gains, despite higher-than-expected results and a dividend increase from Bank of Montreal.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 0.53 points to open Tuesday at 12,650.34
The Canadian dollar was flat at 97.48 cents U.S.
Bank of Montreal on Tuesday reported its quarterly profit eased as lower loan recoveries at its U.S. retail bank offset higher wholesale banking and wealth management profits. BMO shares took on 47 cents to $63.40
The $15.1-billion takeover of Canadian oil and gas company Nexen Inc by Chinese state-owned entity CNOOC Ltd closed on Monday, more than seven months after China's largest-ever foreign takeover was announced. Nexen shares acquired five cents to $28.20
First Majestic Silver Corp., which backed out of a bidding war for Orko Silver Corp last week, said fourth-quarter profit rose 5% on higher production. First Majestic shares demurred 46 cents to $17.33.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faded 3.33 points to 1,137.67
The 14 Toronto subgroups were divided evenly between gainers and losers, the former being led by the metals and mining group and its cousins among global base metals, each of which gained 0.5%, while utilities were 0.3% brighter.
The seven laggards were weighed by health-care, less robust by 1%, while information technology suffered 0.7% and gold dipped 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rebounded Tuesday as robust housing data and solid corporate earnings gave spooked investors a reason to jump back into the market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 88.89 points to start off the day at 13,873.10
The S&P 500 index hiked 8.43 points to 1,496.28. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite added 8.89 points to 3,125.14.
In corporate news, department store chain Macy's reported net sales jumped in the fourth quarter, to $9.4 billion U.S. from a year earlier. The company also said that same-store sales rose 3.7% for the year, edging out its initial forecast of a 3.5% gain.
Home improvement retailer Home Depot reported strong year-end results, providing more evidence of a housing rebound. The company reported a 7% gain in same-store sales for the fourth quarter.
An Italian election that failed to produce a clear winner whipsawed U.S. stocks Monday, with the Dow and S&P 500 suffering their biggest one-day declines of the year.
Election results released by the Italian government late Monday showed a narrow victory for the centre-left coalition headed by Pier Luigi Bersani in the lower house of parliament.
But former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and other anti-austerity parties were not far behind, and the results pointed to gridlock in the Italian Senate. According to Bloomberg, Berlusconi is weighing an alliance that could break the gridlock.
Economically speaking, the S&P Case-Shiller home price index for the fourth quarter of 2012 showed that home prices jumped 7.3%, the third straight quarter of year-over-year gains in prices.
Also this morning, the U.S. Conference Board will release its consumer confidence index and the Census Bureau will release data on new home sales.
Prices on the 10-year U.S. Treasury picked up a bit of ground, dropping yields to 1.89% from Monday’s 1.90%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices loosed 10 cents to $93.01 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $8.30 to $1,594.90 U.S. an ounce.
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