Markets in Toronto recovered some territory on Thursday after reaching a 2-1/2-year high the previous session as drops in Bombardier Inc and in shares of financial-services companies weighed on the market.
The S&P/TSX composite index poked higher 7.30 points to greet noon at 13,779.88
The Canadian dollar moved higher by 0.08 cents to 91.52 cents U.S.
Bombardier said it will delay putting its new narrow-body CSeries jet into commercial use by at least nine months, citing a longer-than-expected test phase.
Bombardier gave back 6.9% to $4.21, helping drag the index's industrial sector down.
Financials, the index's most heavily weighted sector, lost ground as Bank of Nova Scotia declined 0.5% to $63.41, and Toronto-Dominion Bank shed 0.3% to $97.34.
In other corporate news, Australia's Bega Cheese Ltd. said it will sell its 18.8% stake in Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Co Holdings Ltd to Saputo Inc. The news drove Saputo shares up 1.1% to $51.49.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that offshore investors added $8.7 billion of Canadian securities to their holdings in November, mostly corporate securities. It’s the fifth straight monthly rise, while Canadian investors acquired $6.6 billion of foreign securities, all bonds.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange headed backwards 5.69 points to 970.12.
Nine of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher by noon hour, led by metals and mining, up 3.3%, global base metals, up 2.3%, health-care, up 0.7%.
The five laggards were weighed mostly by industrials, down 1.4%, telecoms, down 0.3%, and real-estate, down 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Bad news from Corporate America weighed on the market Thursday morning.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased 69.58 points to break for lunch at 16,412.36
The S&P 500 index dipped 4.03 points to 1,844.35. The NASDAQ retreated 0.19 points to 4,214.69.
Best Buy was the biggest loser in the S&P 500, with shares tumbling almost 30% in the early going. Investors were disappointed after the retailer reported a drop in holiday sales.
Also in the retail world, shares of J.C. Penney declined after the troubled department store owner announced plans to eliminate 2,000 jobs and close 33 stores.
Investors were also wading through a number of quarterly results Thursday, including reports from banks Goldman Sachs and Citigroup
Citigroup's earnings were the first from the big six banks to disappoint investors. Shares declined more than 3% after reporting earnings and revenue that fell short of expectations.
Goldman Sachs' earnings were better than analysts' forecasts, but shares were also lower as the bank's profit in the last three months of 2013 fell 19% from a year earlier.
Shares of railroad CSX fell sharply after the company said its profit declined during the fourth quarter due to weak coal demand. Shares of rival railroads Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, which report results next week, were also down.
Intel and American Express are scheduled to report results in the afternoon.
In other corporate news, shares of Hewlett-Packard moved higher as investors grew optimistic about the firm's plans to sell some new tablets in the Indian market.
CEC Entertainment, the owner of Chuck E. Cheese, announced that private equity firm Apollo Global Management was buying it for $1.3 billion U.S.
On the economic front, filings for initial jobless claims fell last week. A reading on consumer prices for December showed that inflation remains tame.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries gained strength, lowering yields to 2.84% from Wednesday’s 2.88%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slid seven cents to $94.10 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices picked up three dollars to $1,241.30 U.S. an ounce.
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