The Toronto stock market was little changed late-morning Monday amid mixed readings on the health of the manufacturing sector in the world's two largest economies.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index subsided 19.49 points to greet noon Monday at 12,630.93
The Canadian dollar gained back 0.79 cents to 97.18 cents U.S.
The energy sector declined. Canadian Natural Resources gave back 86 cents to $30.04.
Consumer staples led advances with Shoppers Drug Mart ahead 88 cents to $46.16.
The gold sector flexed its muscles as Iamgold improved by 16 cents to $5.59.
Centerra Gold Inc. shares were up 21 cents to $4.03 after it said it expects the Kumtor mine in eastern Kyrgyzstan to achieve its 2013 production target despite last week's shutdown caused by protests calling for nationalization of the operation.
The base metals sector rose slightly while July copper gained one cent to $3.31 U.S. a pound. HudBay Minerals was ahead 11 cents to $8.36.
A new code of conduct unveiled by the CRTC says that wireless customers will be able to cancel their cellphone contracts after two years without any penalties even if they've signed up for longer terms. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission says the new code will apply to new wireless contracts starting Dec. 2.
The TSX telecom sector improved as Telus Corp. edged up 29 cents to $36.40.
In other corporate news, drug manufacturer Patheon Inc. had a profit of $100,000 in the second quarter, an improvement from a $79.6-million loss a year earlier, when it recorded a $57.9-million impairment charge. Revenue rose 40% to $253.9 million, with about $54.6 million of the increase due to an acquisition. Its shares dropped 18 cents to $5.52.
CVTech Group Inc. said Monday that its subsidiaries have been awarded several new contracts representing a total value of approximately $77.4 million. The announcement follows comments last week by the company's second-largest shareholder that CVTech recently twice rebuffed a takeover offer.
Its shares were three cents lower to $1.45 after surging more than 20% Friday before trading was halted.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange improved 4.40 points to at 966.81
The 14 Toronto subgroups were evenly split between winners and losers. Gold shone brightest, adding 2.1%, while consumer staples surged 1.3%, and global base metals grew 0.5%.
The seven laggards were anchored by health-care stocks, down 1.3%, energy, down 0.7%, and industrials, off 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was keeping its winning streak going early Monday, while the S&P 500 and NASDAQ flipped between small gains and losses.
The Dow Jones Industrials paused for lunch up 60.63 points to 15,176.20
The S&P 500 index gave back 3.32 points to 1,627.42. The tech-rich NASDAQ Composite slumped 24.90 points to 3,431.01
Even so, it's been a stellar year for stocks so far. All three indexes are up between 14% and 16%.
However, the move higher has come with a dose of volatility over the past few weeks, as investors worry about when the Federal Reserve might pull back on its bond buying program.
Ford, General Motors and Toyota all reported stronger-than-expected U.S. auto sales for May.
Shares of Merck rose sharply, after the pharmaceutical firm announced a positive study for a skin cancer treatment.
The news boosted shares of GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer
Underwhelming readings on manufacturing and construction spending didn't appear to rattle investors' confidence Monday.
Manufacturing contracted for the first time since November, while construction spending didn't rise as much as economists had expected.
Investors are waiting for the one big number this week: the government's monthly jobs report due out on Friday.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury strengthened, lowering yields to 2.09% from Friday’s 2.16%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $1.37 to $93.34 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices sank $19.80 to $1,412.80 U.S. an ounce
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