Equity markets in Toronto showed a bit of strength on Monday after hitting a one-week high on Friday, with a slip in oil prices expected to weigh on energy stocks
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 39.63 points soon after Monday’s open to 12,801.93, on top of an 88-point gain Friday
On a day light on economic data, the main news concerned Kinross Gold Corp. National Bank Financial raised the target price on Kinross to $7.55 from $7.25, saying the company's balance sheet strength outweighs the inevitability of production declines. Kinross shares gained a dime to $6.25.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained another 5.31 points to 951.87, after an 11-point hike Friday.
All but four of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher in the first hour, led by materials and gold, each up 2%, while metals and mining issues gained 0.6%.
The four laggards were weighed mostly by telecom and utility issues, each down 0.4%, while industrials slipped 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Investors are asking themselves the same question: When will the U.S. Federal Reserve begin to pull back on its bond buying program?
But it appears investors are unwilling to make big bets until they have more clarity about the Fed's next moves.
The Dow Jones Industrials added 18.03 points to open the week at 15,028.50
The S&P 500 index inched up 1.53 points to 1,665.03. The NASDAQ hiked 14.39 points to 3,672.18
Shares of Amgen rose sharply after it agreed to buy Onyx Pharmaceuticals for $10.4 billion U.S., in a deal that will give Amgen access to a wide range of cancer treatment drugs.
Meanwhile, the BATS Global Markets and Direct Edge Holdings exchanges announced that they will merge in a deal that would create that second-largest stock exchange by trading volume.
The deal comes just a few days after a major trading glitch that affected NASDAQ OMX. BATS also experienced significant trading problems a year ago, issues that forced the company to cancel its plans to go public,
Volume should be extremely light this week as the typically sluggish month of August is coming to a close and investors get ready for the upcoming Labour Day holiday.
Still, the possibility of the Fed starting to trim, or taper, the size of its $85 billion U.S. a month in asset purchases was the focus of debate this past weekend as central bankers from around the world took part in the Fed's annual monetary policy symposium in Wyoming.
A downbeat report on manufacturing was also adding pressure on the market. Durable goods orders tumbled 7.3% in July, the most in almost a year. The decline was worse than the 5% drop analysts were expecting, and followed three months of strong gains.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury spiked, weighing yields down to 2.79% from Friday’s 2.82%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices demurred 33 cents to $106.09 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices added a dollar to $1,396.70 U.S. an ounce.
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