Stocks in Toronto were steady on Friday, as investors took a pause following a volatile trading week in which energy and mining stocks were severely battered.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 21.47 points – off its highs of the morning -- to greet noon at 14,259.87
The Canadian dollar lopped off 0.06 cents to 76.50 cents U.S.
Cenovus Energy Inc was among the biggest drags on the TSX, falling 1.4% to $17.95, while Penn West Petroleum Ltd plunged 9.2% to $1.18.
Another big index drag was Bombardier Inc. The plane and train maker was downgraded by Fitch on Thursday, adding further pressure to the already-struggling company which has faced an uphill battle winning over the industry with its CSeries jetliner. Shares sank 5.5% to $1.38, its lowest level since 1993.
The hefty financials group climbed, helped by Royal Bank of Canada's 0.5% gain to $75.75. Bank of Montreal rose 0.7% to $72.70.
Other energy names including Enbridge also offset some of the losses. Enbridge was up 1.4% at $55.76.
On economic matters, Statistics Canada reported that its monthly survey of manufacturing showed sales rose 1.2% to $50.8 billion in June, the second consecutive gain and the third increase since January 2015. Despite the gains in June, year-to-date manufacturing sales were down 1.5% from the same period in 2014.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture inched down 1.25 points to 574.76.
The 14 TSX subgroups were split evenly between gainers and losers, utilities and industrials co-leading the former half, each up 0.5%, while information technology prospered 0.4%.
The seven laggards were weighed most by metals and mining, sliding 1.8%, gold, dulling in price by 1.3%, and materials, off 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded mostly higher on Friday after the release of three more economic data sets while investors' focus shifted back to the Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones industrial average prospered 39.66 points to move into noon hour Friday at 17,447.91.
The S&P 500 gained 2.45 points to 2,085.84. The NASDAQ index moved backward 6.75 points to 5,026.81
The Dow and the S&P 500 were only up about 0.3% this week, while the NASDAQ was slightly lower as biotechnology stocks fell more than 1%.
In corporate news, retailer J.C. Penney's stock surged about 6% in early trading after reporting mixed quarterly results on Friday.
Nordstrom reported quarterly earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street's expectations on Thursday. The retailer added it increased its guidance for the year
An SEC filing revealed Tesla's secondary offering of 2.7 million common shares was priced at $242 U.S. a shares, pushing the amount raised to about $643 million U.S.
Restaurant chain El Pollo Loco posted mixed results for the previous quarter, barely beating on the top line but missing on revenue. Still, the company said it is confident about the rest of 2015 thanks to an expanded menu.
King Digital, the maker of the popular game Candy Crush, beat expectations for the previous quarter on both lines, but said that monthly active users fell short of estimates.
Friday's economic data offerings included the U.S. Producer Price index rose 0.2% in July, while core PPI also ticked up 0.2%, both beating estimates.
U.S. industrial production for July shot up 0.6%, the Fed said, above the expected 0.3% gain as auto production surged.
The preliminary reading for August consumer sentiment came in at 92.9, below the estimated 93.5.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries regained lost ground, putting yields back down to Thursday’s 2.19%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 28 cents a barrel to $42.51 U.S.
Gold prices lost three dollars to $1,112.60 U.S. an ounce.
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