The Toronto stock market was still negative midday Tuesday amid rising oil prices and major deal-making in the sports business.
The S&P/TSX composite index stumbled 75.50 points to greet noon at 13,396.72
The Canadian dollar faded 0.05 cents to 94.79 cents U.S.
The TSX gold sector was down as Goldcorp faded 10 cents to $24.21.
The National Hockey League has reached a 12-year, $5.2-billion agreement with Rogers Communications for the league's broadcast and multimedia rights.
The league says the deal gives Rogers national rights to all NHL games, including the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Stanley Cup Final, on all of its platforms in all languages.
Shares of financial companies fell, with Bank of Nova Scotia dropping 0.5% to $66.15 and Toronto-Dominion Bank slipping 0.3% to C$97.60.
Gold producers gave back ground. Goldcorp shed almost 2% to $23.73, and Barrick Gold lost 1% to $17.11. The index's gold-mining sector has lost close to half its value this year.
Alimentation Couche-Tard jumped 1.6% to $75.13 after the convenience store chain reported a 27% rise in quarterly profit, driven by higher gasoline margins and acquisitions.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 3.21 points at lunch hour to 926.05
All but two of the 14 TSX subgroups remained negative at noon, due mostly by gold stocks, down 2.3%, while materials slid 1.2% and global base metals suffered 1.1%.
The two gainers were consumer staples, up 0.2%, and health-care, up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks were in the pre-holiday doldrums Tuesday, but shares of a number of major retailers were on the move ahead of Black Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrials added 32.35 points from Monday’s all-time high, to 16,104.90
The S&P 500 index regained 2.44 points to 1,804.92. The NASDAQ added 19.56 points to 4,014.14, smashing through the psychologically-important 4,000-point barrier it hadn’t broken in more than 13 years!
U.S. markets will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving and will shut at 1 p.m. ET on Friday.
Tiffany & Co. shares soared to an all-time high after the jewelry retailer said sales and earnings surged in the third quarter, driven by strong demand in China.
Shares of struggling retailer J.C. Penney also rose after CEO Mike Ullman spent $1 million U.S. to buy 112,000 shares, according to a regulatory filing. The move seemed to boost confidence in J.C. Penney's turnaround plan. The worst performing stock in the S&P 500 this year, J.C. Penney has bounced back 25% in the past month.
There was a new twist in the ongoing Men's Warehouse saga. Shares of Jos. A. Bank surged after Men's Warehouse offered to buy the rival suit seller for $1.5 billion U.S.
The offer comes weeks after Jos. A Bank made a hostile takeover bid for Men's Warehouse, which is also facing a proxy fight by its largest shareholder.
Barnes & Noble shares fell after the bookseller reported disappointing quarterly results as sales of the Nook e-reader continue to plunge.
There are few earnings reports of note during the rest of the week. But PC and printer marker Hewlett-Packard will report results this afternoon. Investors will be looking for more signs from CEO Meg Whitman that she is righting the ship at HP.
The retail sector is in focus as consumers gear up for the holiday shopping frenzy, which unofficially begins on Black Friday. Overall, sales growth is expected to be the weakest since 2008, according to predictions from Morgan Stanley.
Economically speaking, consumer confidence fell in November, following a sharp drop in October, according to a closely watched index from the Conference Board.
Reports on housing suggest that the real estate market may be losing some momentum, although it remains stronger than last year.
Home prices continued to climb in third quarter, rising 11% from a year earlier, according to the Case-Shiller index of prices in 20 cities. However, the quarter-over-quarter gain slowed to 3%, compared with the second quarter, when prices jumped 7%.
Separately, applications for building permits rose 6.2% in October, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries moved ahead, lowering yields to 2.70% from Monday’s 2.74%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices eased 34 cents to $93.75 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices added $1.80 to $1,243 U.S. an ounce.
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