Falling mining stocks pushed the Toronto stock market slightly lower Monday as traders looked to a heavy slate of earnings news coming out this week.
The S&P/TSX composite index slipped 6.71 points to end the day at 14,493.68
The Canadian dollar inched up 0.05 cents U.S. to 90.77 cents U.S.
On Monday, traders looked to results coming in after the close from Rogers Communications. Rogers acquired additional wireless spectrum during the January auction for $3.3 billion, which will be needed to allow consumers to stream NHL games on their mobile devices.
Rogers scored a $5.2-billion multi-year deal last fall for the Canadian rights to all NHL games and its shares added five cents to $44.32. Rogers shares did not budge from their perch of $44.27.
Teck Resources reports Tuesday and its results will be impacted by falling commodity prices. Copper prices have tumbled 11 per cent this year and coal prices have fared even worse, falling from $300 U.S. a tonne in 2011 to about $120 U.S. a tonne. Teck shares slipped 31 cents to $24.00.
Meanwhile, Canadian Pacific also reports Tuesday and investors will look to see how severe winter weather affected the railway in the quarter and how increased petroleum shipments have lifted the bottom line. CP shares climbed 78 cents to $163.99.
Elsewhere on the corporate front, TransCanada shares fell $1.92, or 3.7%, to $49.38 after the U.S. government said Friday that it needs more time to prepare its recommendation to President Barack Obama on the company's Keystone XL pipeline.
The southern leg of the Alberta-to-Texas pipeline is already completed, but the northern stretch that crosses the Canada-U.S. border requires a presidential permit.
Barrick Gold shares were down 78 cents to $19.03 following reports from the Wall Street Journal that merger talks between the Toronto-based mining company and Newmont Mining had broken off last week.
However, sources told Bloomberg and others that the issues separating the two parties are minor, leaving open the possibility that the deal could still happen
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange docked 1.56 points to 997.21
All but four of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower on the day, with gold dipping 0.6%, materials off 0.5% and the metals and mining group demurring 0.3%.
The four gainers were led by health-care, up 0.8%, information technology, up 0.6%, and industrials, better by 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks drifted higher Monday as U.S. investors got back into action after the long holiday weekend.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average remained positive 40.71 points to close at 16,449.25
The S&P 500 gained 7.04 points to 1,871.89, and the NASDAQ composite index gained 26.03 to 4,121.55.
It will be a week full corporate earnings reports, including well-known brands like Netflix, McDonald's and Facebook
Kimberly-Clark, a producer of consumer products including Kleenex, reported a loss that was smaller than the loss reported a year ago. The stock is down about 1.5%.
Toy company Hasbro also swung to a profit.
Halliburton shares rose 3% after the oil field services company's earnings narrowly beat expectations. The company, along with others in the oil and gas industry, is riding a boom in domestic energy production.
Netflix will report today after the market closes. The stock has been one of Wall Street's big momentum plays and the top performer in the S&P 500 last year, with an incredible 269% rise. But tech stocks have been volatile over the past several weeks, and Netflix shares are down 6% this year.
GM, Apple and Stabucks are among the other big companies set to release results later in the week.
Lululemon shares were under pressure following the company's analyst meeting Friday when some felt there wasn't a clear vision for how to increase sales. Over the weekend, a judge dismissed a challenge from shareholders that they were misled about the quality issues at Lululemon last year.
J.C. Penney shares were rebounding from last week's losses. They were up over 7% today. Shares of Zillow were also up sharply, adding to this year's 26% gain.
TransCanada, which builds pipelines and other energy infrastructure, was down 3% Monday after the U.S. again push back a decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
Ford shares were down slightly following a report that chief financial officer Mark Fields will replace chief executive Alan Mulally before the end of this year.
Shares of Newmont Mining rose after Bloomberg reported that it's in talks to be bought by rival gold mining company Barrick Gold Corp. The report said negotiations hit a snag three days ago, but suggested that Barrick is willing to pay a significant premium.
Chinese social media company Weibo, often compared to Twitter, continued to rally following its initial public offering last week. The stock was up more than 13%.
Investors were looking ahead to corporate results due later this week, with 11 Dow companies and 161 of the S&P 500 scheduled to release quarterly reports.
Analysts expect overall earnings for the S&P 500 to have declined the first quarter, but results so far have been better than forecast.
Of the 82 companies that have reported earnings as of last week, 66% have topped forecasts, according to Fact Set Research.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries lost ground, raising yields back to Thursday’s 2.72%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lost 22 cents to $104.32 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices fell $5.40 to $1,289.20 U.S. an ounce.
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