Toronto stocks are unable to sustain any direction in early morning dealings Friday, as traders are digesting the employment reports from both sides of the border.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index was up by 27.84 points at noon, to 11,915.35. Bay Street is moving in a tight range, after snapping its five-day rally in the previous session on easing oil and commodity prices.
The Industrial Index is gaining and Consumer Staples Index is adding strength, too On the other hand, gold and energy stocks are down marginally.
Among gold plays, Lihir Gold is slipping 1.79% and Eldorado Gold is losing 2.36%.
Goldcorp Inc. is easing 0.44% even after its price target was hiked by $0.50 to $53.50 at UBS.
Canplat Resources is shedding 6.29% after its board reiterated support for Gold Corp's $280 million takeover offer.
Software maker Coral Corp. is surrendering 6.39% after announcing plans to reduce it global workforce by about 20%.
On the gainers' list, Canadian drugstore chain Jean Coutu Group is rising 3.29% after swinging to profit in the third quarter, reporting earnings of $0.19 per share compared to a loss of $1.66 per share in the year ago period.
Similarly, DragonWave Inc. is adding 8.40% after it said it turned to profit in Q3 2009 reporting $0.37 per share compared to a loss of $0.01 in the prior year period.
Canada Pacific Railway is adding 1.03%. Engineering and construction play SNC Lavalin Group is up 1.33%.
In economic news, Statistics Canada reported today that employment unexpectedly fell by 2,600 in December. Jobs in transportation and warehousing companies and public employment fell by 45,500, while healthcare jobs rose 35,300. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.5%.
The Ivey Purchasing Managers' Index, released Thursday, revealed that Canadian business and government spending surprisingly declined in December. The index fell to 48.4 in December from 55.9 in November. The Canadian economy had edged up 0.4% in 2009’s third quarter, snapping a recession in the previous three quarters.
The Canadian dollar gave back 0.13 cents to 96.52 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but four of the 14 TSX subgroups were higher by the lunch break. Metals and mining led the charge, up 1.6%, followed by industrials, ahead 1.4% and global base metals, gaining 0.9%.
Three of the unlucky four were health-care stocks, down 0.6%, while gold and energy lost 0.2% each.
The TSX Venture Exchange regained 1.13 points to 1,592.66, while the Nasdaq Canada index stumbled 0.39 points to 726.64.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks declined Friday as investors made a measured response to a surprisingly weak jobs report amid other recent signs that the economy is recovering.
By noon, the Dow Jones Industrials were down 20.94 points to 10,585.92. The broader S&P 500 slid 1.43 points to 1,140.26, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq regained 7.30 points to 2,307.35.
The blue-chip Dow managed gains Thursday on a surge in financial shares and signs of improvement in the retail sector. But the broader market was mixed ahead of the jobs report.
Following Monday's big rally, stocks have been mixed to lower all week, with investors showing reluctance to move after the major gains of 2009 and ahead of the jobs report.
Although the economy appeared to turn a corner in the fourth quarter, market participants are looking for further signs of stability before they push stocks a lot higher. In particular, still-high unemployment and sluggish consumer spending remain a worry.
The government reported that employers cut 85,000 jobs in December, which was much worse than expected.
A consensus of economist opinions from Briefing.com showed that expectations were flat ahead of the report. This was changed, shortly before the release, from a consensus expectation of a loss of 35,000 jobs.
Also, the government upwardly revised its figure for November, to a gain of 4,000 jobs, from the previously reported loss of 11,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate, calculated by a separate survey, held steady at 10%, as expected.
Treasury prices were slightly lower, raising yields on the benchmark 10-year note back to 3.83%, from Thursday’s 3.82%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil slid 47 cents to $82.19 U.S.
Gold prices fell six dollars to $1,128 an ounce U.S.
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