The Toronto stock market was lower Thursday as traders waded through Canadian earnings news and watched Twitter stock skyrocket as the year's most anticipated IPO got underway.
The S&P/TSX composite index lost 86.21 points to close Thursday at 13,294.20
The Canadian dollar shed 0.39 cents at 95.59 cents U.S.
Meanwhile, Canadian earnings news spanned most TSX sectors, including telecom, financial and resource companies.
BCE Inc. adjusted earnings in the third quarter rose by 7% to $584 million or 75 cents per share, which was two cents below estimates.
And BCE's revenue rose 2.3% from a year earlier to just under $5.1 billion, slightly below estimates of $5.16 billion. Its shares edged 39 cents higher to $45.89.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. is hiking its quarterly dividend by 60% to 20 cents a share. It also expects to increase annual cash flow by 14% in 2014 to $8.7 billion as production output grows by 7% over this year's level.
Cash flow from operations rose to $2.4 billion or $2.26 per share in the third quarter, beating estimates of $2.17 a share, and its shares gained 12 cents to $32.61.
Tim Hortons Inc. posted net income of $113.9 million or 75 cents per share in the third quarter, both up from the same time last year but short of analyst estimates.
The restaurant operator's revenues also grew, rising by 2.9% to $825.3 million. Analysts were looking for 78 cents per share of net income, 77 cents per share of adjusted earnings and $824.5 million of revenue and its shares were up 19 cents to $62.79.
And insurer Manulife Financial said that its core earnings for the quarter were $704 million, up sharply from $570 million a year earlier. Net income came in at $1.034 billion, compared with a net loss of $211 million a year ago and its shares climbed 51 cents to $19.22 after hitting a new 52-week high of $19.34.
After the close Wednesday, Sun Life Financial Inc. reported a quarterly loss of $520 million or 84 cents a share as it wrote down and closed the sale of its U.S. annuity business.
That compared with a profit of $383 million, or 64 cents per share, a year ago. Ex-items, it earned an operating net profit from continuing operations of $422 million or 69 cents per diluted share for the quarter, beating estimates by five cents a share. Sun Life advanced 84 cents to $36.27.
Commodity prices were mixed and the base metals sector was down with December copper up a penny at $3.25 U.S. a pound and Teck Resources gave back 76 cents to $28.21.
The energy sector was down while Imperial Oil gave back $1.13 to $44.31.
In the gold sector, Goldcorp faded 74 cents to $25.51.
Among tech issues, Open Text was up 15 cents to $87.06.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange ditched 10.23 points to 931.08
All but two of the 10 TSX subgroups were negative, weighed mostly by materials, down 1.8%, energy, off 1.3%, and utilities, sliding 1%.
The two gainers were telecoms, up 0.2%, and financials, inching ahead 0.02%.
ON WALLSTREET
Most stocks finished in the red Thursday, but the one that everyone had their eye on closed firmly in green. Shares of Twitter surged in their debut on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Dow Jones Industrials fell 152.90 points, or nearly 1%, to 15,594
The S&P 500 index lost 23.34 points to 1,747.15. The NASDAQ plummeted 74.61 points to 3,857.33
Stocks have been trading near all-time highs recently. In fact, the Dow hit a new record early Thursday morning before pulling back. So Thursday's slump might be a sign that investors are growing more worried about how hot the market has been this year. Some analysts feel stocks are getting close to being overvalued.
But Twitter didn't suffer from any concerns about valuation. The stock began trading at $45.10 U.S., 73% above its initial public offering price of $26 U.S., shortly before 11 a.m. ET. Twitter continued to rise, climbing as high as $50.09 U.S. It closed the day up 73% at $44.90 U.S, with more 117 million shares exchanging hands on the first day of trading.
Still, rival social media sites Facebook and LinkedIn tumbled along with the rest of tech. The Social Media ETF which is expected to purchase shares of Twitter for its fund, declined almost 4%.
Whole Foods was one of the biggest losers in the S&P 500 and NASDAQ as shares sank more than 11%. The sharp drop came after organic grocer cut its earnings and sales forecasts.
Qualcomm was also weighing on the NASDAQ and S&P 500, as shares fell 4% after the company posted quarterly earnings that fell short of expectations.
Groupon and Priceline.com both sank in after hours trading following their earnings releases. The two stocks finished the regular day of trading lower as well.
Tesla shares tumbled again following reports of yet another fire in one of its Model S electric cars.
J.C. Penney, however, jumped after the troubled retailer announced an increase in same-store sales for October.
Investors were also encouraged by a report that showed the U.S. economy perked up slightly this summer, driven largely by businesses re-stocking their shelves, a rise in consumer spending, and the ongoing housing recovery.
Gross domestic product -- the broadest measure of economic activity -- rose at a 2.8% annual rate in the third quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That marked the fastest growth in a year and was stronger than economists had anticipated.
A separate report showed initial jobless claims declined for the fourth straight week, falling by 9,000 to 336,000.
The European Central Bank said it cut a key interest rate to 0.25%, a sign of how fragile the European economic recovery is. European stock markets made modest gains in afternoon trading, keeping them near five-year highs.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained slightly, lowering yields to 2.61% from Wednesday’s 2.64%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices moved downward 48 cents to $94.32 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slumped $11.40 to $1,304.90 U.S. an ounce.
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