The Toronto stock market edged lower in mid-morning trading Friday as profit-takers took advantage of a 250-point surge in the main index on Thursday
The S&P/TSX Composite Index was still in the red 15.78 points by noon, to 10,659.90, after a spectacular 200-point-plus surge Thursday
The Toronto index was nearing a rally high of 10,714 reached in June due to a string of better-than-expected U.S. earnings that raised hopes for an improving economy.
In Canadian corporate news, Loblaw Co. Ltd. said Friday an uptick in sales helped boost its earnings by 38% in the second quarter. The grocery store giant also announced it will pay $225 million for T&T Supermarket Inc., which is described as Canada's largest Asian food retailer.
Shares in the company fell 55 cents to $35.20.
And Western Canadian Coal Corp. said it has arranged a $52.1-million bought-deal financing, with underwriters agreeing to buy at least 19.3 million of the company's common shares, causing the company's stock to tumble 18 cents or 6.1% to $2.76.
In New York, Nortel Networks is conducting an auction of its wireless assets. The three known contenders going into the bidding were Swedish telecom giant Ericsson, Finnish-German joint venture Nokia-Siemens and U.S. investment firm MatlinPatterson Global Advisers LLC.
However, Research In Motion said Thursday that it's talking with a variety of parties, including unnamed Nortel stakeholders, in hopes that it can gain some ground for a last-minute bid. Its shares fell $1.39 to $81.90.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.44 cents to 92.34 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 14 TSX subgroups, 10 were negative by midday Friday. Health-care stocks were down 2.4%, consumer staples off 1.5% and information technology was trailing 1.2%.
The four gaining groups were led by real-estate, up 0.7%, metals and mining stocks, ahead 0.5%, and financials, up 0.4%.
The TSX Venture Exchange was up 1.54 points, to 1,139.33, while the Nasdaq Canada Index tailed off 5.06 points to 743.49
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks slumped Friday, as disappointing quarterly results from Microsoft, Amazon.com and American Express gave investors a reason to retreat after the recent rally.
The Dow Jones Industrials backtracked 28.72 points to 9,040.57. The S&P 500 index moved 4.87 points lower to 971.42. The tech-rich Nasdaq composite gave back 23.51 points, to 1,950.09.
Shares of Microsoft fell 10% Friday morning, as investors showed disappointment with the company's quarterly results, released late Thursday. The tech leader reported weaker earnings that topped estimates and weaker revenue that missed estimates, blaming a slowdown in the global PC and server markets.
Fellow Dow component American Express reported weaker quarterly earnings as a result of the cost of paying back the loan it received from the government last year. However, the earnings still managed to top analysts' forecasts. Shares fell 1.6%.
Online retailer Amazon.com reported weaker earnings that beat estimates on higher revenue that missed forecasts in a late Thursday report. Amazon also forecast third-quarter revenue in a range that met analysts' predictions. The company recently announced it was buying online shoe retailer Zappos.com for $928 million U.S.
Amazon.com fell 8% Friday.
On the economic front, consumer sentiment remains weak, according to the latest University of Michigan survey released Friday. Sentiment inched up to 66 from 64.6, versus forecasts for a rise to 65.
Treasury prices tailed off a mite, nudging upward the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.67%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil regained 20 cents to $67.36 U.S.
Gold prices were off $2 at $953 U.S. an ounce.
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