Toronto stocks moved slightly lower amid uncertain trading on Friday as the market wraps up a dismal week. Materials and resource stocks were mildly lower to lead the declines.
The S&P TSX Composite Index came off its lows of the day, but still surrendered 24.07 points to 9.749.85. The index shed more than 500 points, or about 5.4%, over the last five trading days.
Mining stocks dropped as copper fell more than 1% in Comex trading. Teck Cominco declined 2.5% to $17.97 and HudBay was down 2.2% to $7.08.
Materials stocks have dropped, as Potash was down 8.7% to $99.39. Rival Agrium dipped 4.4% to $44.25.
In corporate news, Bioniche Life Sciences soared 28.3% to 59 cents after the company sold the exclusive rights to develop and market Urocidin in the U.S. with an option for global rights to Endo Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth up to $130 million U.S.
Rogers Communications climbed 1.1% to $32.00 after the company announced the launch of mobile Internet ready netbooks. The network is now the mobile Internet service provider for the first 3.5G embedded laptops in Canada.
Corel Corp. dropped 4% to $2.40 after the company reported that its second quarter net loss was $4.1 million U.S. or $0.16 U.S. per share, compared to net income of $930,000 U.S. or $0.04 U.S. per share in the second quarter of fiscal 2008.
Migenix said its fourth-quarter income was $6.71 million or $0.05 per share compared with a loss of $3.24 million or $0.04 per share in the prior year period. The stock plunged 14.3% to three cents.
Caldwell Partners International Inc. plummeted 8.2% to 78 cents after the company reported a net loss for the third quarter of $2.5 million or $0.15 per share, compared to net income of $69,145 or $0.004 per share for the year-ago quarter.
In economic news, Statistics Canada reported a decline of 7,400 jobs in the month of June, a much better number than economists were expecting. The unemployment rate climbed to 8.6%, up from 8.4% in May.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported job losses of 13,000 in the second quarter, much smaller than the 273,000 decline in the first three months of the year.
Canadian new home prices fell 0.1% in May. A decline of 0.4% was forecast, compared to a drop of 0.6% in April.
Meanwhile, the Canadian trade deficit widened to $1.4 billion in May. A deficit of $600 million was projected, compared to a deficit of $200 million in April.
The Canadian dollar lost 0.15 cents to 85.88 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 14 TSX subgroups, 10 pointed downward to end a rough week. Materials got bruised the worst, 2.1%, followed by metals and mining, off 1.4% and health-care stocks, sicker by 0.9%.
The four gainers were led upwards by information technology, up 1.3%, consumer staples, ahead 1.1% and telecoms, advancing 0.8%.
The TSX Venture Exchange moved higher 2.73 points, to 1,045.55, while the Nasdaq Canada Index tacked on 2.39 points to 650.13.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, blue chips slipped Friday afternoon after Chevron's profit warning dragged on oil stocks, but the Nasdaq managed modest gains at the end of a down week for Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrials average faltered 36.65 points, to end a downward week at 8,146.52. The S&P 500 index fell back 3.55 points to 879.13. The Nasdaq was in the black 3.48 points to 1,756.03.
The Dow and S&P 500 both closed lower for the fourth straight week.
Investors had been worried that the economic recovery is going to be slow. As companies start reporting quarterly results, investors will be closely tuning into management forecasts of business conditions for the remainder of the year.
Chevron said late Thursday that a drop in U.S. refining margins would cut into second-quarter profits and that the impact of higher oil prices was being countered by the weaker dollar.
Shares fell 2.6% Friday.
Fellow Dow oil component Exxon Mobil lost 1.5%.
Alcoa began the second-quarter reporting period Wednesday, announcing a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss. But the reporting period really picks up next week, when Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Intel and General Electric all report results.
S&P 500 companies are expected to see profits decline by 36% from a year ago, according to the latest figures from Thomson Reuters
On the economic front, the May trade balance shrank to a deficit of $26 billion U.S., the Commerce Department reported, from the revised deficit of $28.8 billion U.S. for April.
Economists had expected the May deficit to widen to $30 billion U.S.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. Import Price Index rose 3.2% in June. Also, export prices rose 1.1% in June.
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index fell to 64.6 in July from 70.8 in June. Economists thought it would fall to 70.
General Motors emerged from bankruptcy protection Friday with less brands, dealerships and billions less in debt.
The so-called new GM will be majority owned by the U.S. government, with the Canadian government, and the United Auto Workers union also taking a share. The old GM's bondholders will eventually own about 10% of the company, although old GM shareholders will not.
Treasury prices galloped ahead, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.29% from 3.40% late Thursday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil sank 52 to $59.87 U.S.
Gold prices tailed off $4 an ounce to $913 U.S.
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