Toronto stocks were modestly higher in Thursday afternoon trading and recovered some of the losses from earlier this week. Strength in the mining and financial sectors has led the gains.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index strengthened 56.44 points to finish trading at 10,122.55, to end a four-session losing streak that saw the index end Wednesday’s session at a three-week low.
Mining stocks rallied as copper gained slightly on the Comex, recovering a small portion of a recent slide.
Teck Resources jumped 6.4% to $18.43 after the company said that it has agreed to sell one-third interest in Teck's Waneta Dam in southeastern British Columbia to BC Hydro for $825 million.
Meanwhile, HudBay Minerals climbed 3% to $7.86. The company announced it will close its copper smelter in Flin Flon, Manitoba, by July 2010, eliminating 225 jobs.
Financials were up as all of the big six banks are in the green. Royal Bank added 2.6% to $45.19, Bank of Montreal is up 2.4% to $45.54 and Scotiabank added 2% to finish the day at $40.05.
Technology stocks were up, despite a 0.72% drop for Research in Motion to a closing price of $86.53, ahead of its quarterly earnings report. The Blackberry-maker is expected to report quarterly earnings of $0.94 U.S. per share, up from $0.84 U.S. a year ago.
In corporate news, Mineral resource explorer Iamgold raised its fiscal-2009 gold production outlook. However, the full year production outlook for niobium was lowered slightly. On the report, shares were down 5.3% to $10.30.
WestJet Airlines dropped 1.4% to $10.59 after the company said that the WestJet Pilots Association ratified the 2009 pilot agreement, effective July 1. About 89% of the pilots voted in favor of the agreement.
Bombardier shares were down 0.3% to $3.39. The Toronto Star reported Toronto's transit system is expected to announce it will buy 204 streetcars from the company.
In economic news, consumer prices inched higher by 0.1% in May, down from the 0.4% increase in April. Economists were looking for consumer prices to slip 0.2%. Core prices excluding energy and food advanced 2% over the 12 months to May, up from the 1.8% rise posted in April.
The Canadian dollar moved 0.13 cents lower to 88.27 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 13 TSX subgroups, 10 ended the day positively. Metals and mining stocks were the most successful, advancing 3.4%, followed by financials, up 1.8% and health-care, 1.6% stronger.
The three laggards were gold, off 2%, materials, down 1.2% and telecoms, skidding 0.2%.
The TSX Venture Exchange was 1.06 points off to 1,114.31 while the Nasdaq Canada Index sank 8.10 points to 734.02.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, blue chips managed to advance Thursday after encouraging signs in the day's labor market and manufacturing reports, but the gains were modest and tech selling kept the Nasdaq from joining the advance.
The Dow Jones Industrials average was ahead 58.42 points to end the day at 8,555.60. The S&P 500 index picked up 7.66 points to 918.37. The Nasdaq was 0.34 points lower to 1,807.72.
A three-month market rally lost steam over the last week as bets that the pace of the recession is waning have turned to worries that the market has gotten ahead of itself.
Reports on Thursday provided some reassurance, but stocks remain vulnerable to further pullbacks in the near term. The S&P 500 had rallied 40% between March 9, when it hit 12-year lows, and the end of last week. But it has pulled back so far this week.
As of Thursday afternoon, the S&P 500 was up 35.5% from the lows.
A weekly reading on initial jobless claims showed little change from the week before.
Jobless claims rose slightly to 608,000 for the week ended June 13, the government said, from the prior week's revised figure of 605,000. But continuing claims in the most recent week available fell by 148,000, the first drop since the week ended Jan. 3.
The Philadelphia Fed index, a reading on regional manufacturing, improved to negative 2.2 from negative 22.6 last month. Economists expected a reading of negative 17. In addition, the index's measure of future activity surged to its highest level since September 2003.
An index of leading economic indicators (LEI) rose 1.2% in May, the Conference Board reported. LEI gainedt 1.1% in April and was expected to increase 1% last month.
Treasury prices tumbled, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.82% from 3.69% Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
U.S. light crude oil for July delivery rose 17 cents to $71.20 U.S. a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
COMEX gold for August delivery fell $1.40 to $934.60 U.S. an ounce.
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