Rising gold stocks helped push the Toronto stock market higher Friday on top of three straight days of advances that have left the TSX at its highest levels since April 2011.
The S&P/TSX composite index grew 56.63 points to close the week at 13,888.21
The Canadian dollar slipped yet again, by 0.37 cents, to 91.11 cents U.S.
Dollarama Inc. said bad weather had a severe impact on its December sales but that they have been trending back to normal levels. The Montreal-based retailer says comparable-store sales in the normally busy month were down 7.5%.
Dollarama declined 51 cents to $82.57.
RBC also downgraded Bombardier to sector perform from outperform after the transport giant said that its flagship new airliner will be going into service later than expected. Its stock fell 7.7% Thursday on the news and lost four cents to $4.13 Friday.
The TSX gold sector, the worst performing component on the Toronto market last year, ran up Friday, having fallen almost 50% last year.
Barrick Gold advanced 69 cents to $20.61 while Goldcorp gained $1.04 to $25.42.
The tech sector climbed as BlackBerry rose 59 cents, or 6.3%, to $9.96.
Financials were also positive with Royal Bank ahead 50 cents to $71.86.
March copper was unchanged at $3.35 U.S. a pound, and the base metals sector lost early momentum to move down. Nevsun was up 15 cents to $4.09.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 1.80 points to 976.34.
Eight of the 14 Toronto subgroups finished the day in positive territory, as gold triumphed 3.8%, materials surged 1.5%, and information technology was 1.1% to the good.
The metals and mining and utilities sector weighed down the five losing groups, each falling 0.6%, while industrials retreated 0.4%. Real-estate issues were unchanged at the closing bell.
ON WALLSTREET
The major stock indexes moved in different directions Friday as investors analyzed a slew of corporate earnings and the latest figures on housing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average remained positive 41.55 points to go into a long weekend at 16,458.56
The S&P 500 index dipped 7.19 points to 1,838.70. The NASDAQ slid 21.11 points to 4,197.58. Markets are to be shuttered Monday in the U.S. for Martin Luther King Day.
Corporate earnings have been hit and miss so far this quarter, providing little impetus for stocks to add to last year's impressive gains.
Shares of United Parcel Service fell after the shipping company lowered fourth-quarter earnings estimates due to a surge of last minute holiday orders.
UPS took some heat late last year for failing to make deliveries in time for Christmas. Shares of rival FedEx fell slightly on the news as well.
Morgan Stanley shares rose after the investment bank's earnings beat Wall Street estimates. The firm was the last of the six largest U.S. banks to post earnings.
The majority of those banks surpassed analysts' expectations, but Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America all reported a sharp drop in mortgage activity due to higher interest rates.
General Electric fell despite reporting a boost in quarterly earnings.
American Express spiked over 3% to an all-time high even though earnings missed estimates. The results did show a jump in consumer spending.
The stock also benefited from some notable analyst upgrades and optimism from the company's management on its earnings call. .
Intel shares sank more than 2% following earnings that missed expectations.
Shares of Electronic Arts surged more than 11% after an analyst upgrade and a report that the company will beat out its competitors for holiday video game sales.
Shares of Nu Skin continued to fall. The stock has plunged over 40% since Wednesday after Chinese state media accused the beauty products marketer of running a pyramid scheme.
Herbalife, another multi-level marketer that has been accused by critics -- most notably hedge fund manager Bill Ackman -- of running a pyramid scheme, has dropped more than 13% on the Nu Skin news.
On the economic front, the U.S. Commerce Department said Friday that builders broke ground last month at a seasonally annual rate of 999,000 homes. That's 9.8% lower than November's pace of 1.12 million, which was the fastest in five years.
For the year, builders started 923,000 homes and apartments, up 18.3% from 2012.
Applications for building permits, considered a good sign of future activity, fell 3% in December to a rate of 986,000.
Other data showed that U.S. factory production rose 0.4% in December, following gains of 0.6% in both November and October.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries edged up, lowering yields to 2.83% from Thursday’s 2.84%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices took on 15 cents to $94.11 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices surged $11.30 to $1,253.70 U.S. an ounce.
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