The Toronto stock market was lower Thursday afternoon in a broad-based decline as investors digested disappointing U.S. retail sales numbers and looked ahead to a key earnings report from the tech sector after the close.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 49.18 points to 11,804.38.
The TSX tech sector led advancers ahead of the Intel earnings, with Research In Motion Ltd. ahead 74 cents to $68.12.
Eastman Kodak Co. said it had filed suits against Apple Inc. and RIM, alleging those companies have violated patents related to digital camera and digital imaging technologies.
Among railway stocks, Canadian National Railways fell $1.57 to $55.24 while Canadian Pacific Railways lost $1.24 to $55.15.
The gold sector was down as Goldcorp Inc. lost $1.04 to $41.51.
The TSX energy sector moved down as Canadian Natural Resources gave back 70 cents to $72.80 and Husky Energy declined 53 cents to $29.39.
The base metals sector was down as March copper in New York was unchanged at $3.39 U.S. a pound.
Sherritt International declined 23 cents to $7.19, while HudBay Minerals dropped 14 cents to $14.26.
Shares in Duluth Metals Ltd. ran up $1.13 or 52.8% to $3.27 after announcing a joint venture with Chilean copper miner Antofagasta. Duluth owns the Nokomis project in Minnesota, which contains copper, nickel and platinum group metals.
Mining investors also took in a report from Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto PLC that demand for iron ore, copper and gold rose strongly in the fourth quarter. But the global mining company was cautious about the current year as governments wind down economic stimulus programs.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.74 cents to 97.74 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
The 14 TSX subgroups were evenly split between gainers and losers. Information technology was the champion of the former group, advancing 1.5%, while utilities and metals and mining stocks gained 0.5% each.
The seven losing groups were weighed by gold, off 1.6%, materials, down 1.3% and industrials, sliding 1%.
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 1.30 points to 1,594.51, while the Nasdaq Canada index added 7.47 points to 738.35.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, equities rose Thursday, led by technology shares, as investors looked past the day's ho-hum economic news and geared up for Intel's quarterly report, released shortly after the bell.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 29.78 points to 10,710.55. The S&P 500 picked up 2.78 points to 1.148.46, and the Nasdaq added 8.84 points to 2,316.74.
The Dow and S&P 500 are at new 15-month highs and the Nasdaq at a new 16-month high.
After a weak start Thursday, stocks mustered some slim gains heading into midday, despite the day's mixed economic news.
The major indexes posted sizable gains last year as investors dove back in after moving beyond the worst financial crisis in decades. But any gains this year are likely to be more subdued.
Economically speaking, retail sales dropped 0.3% in December, according to the Census Bureau, which was much worse than expected.
Sales were expected to have risen 0.5% in December, according to a consensus of economist expectations from Briefing.com. That would compare to the upwardly revised gain of 1.8% in the prior month.
Helping to soften the blow, the National Retail Federation said holiday sales for the November-December period rose 1.1%, a better showing than the retail group's forecast of a 1% decline.
Dow component Intel reported quarterly results after the close, and earned 40 cents U.S. a share, versus a profit of four cents U.S. a year ago, according to analysts surveyed by earnings tracker Thomson Reuters. Projections were for earnings of 30 cents U.S. a share.
Intel shares gained ahead of its results. Merck, Microsoft, IBM and Hewlett-Packard were the Dow's other big gainers.
Overall S&P 500 earnings are expected to have risen more than 200% from the previous year, the worst quarter in Thomson's history.
The Labor Department reported that weekly jobless claims rose more than expected. Initial jobless claims jumped to 444,000 in the week ended Jan. 9. That's more than the expected increase to 436,000.
A panel investigating the financial crisis was holding a second day of hearings in Washington, with government officials such as Attorney General Eric Holder testifying. On Wednesday, four top bank chief executives told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that they had made mistakes but that they didn't realize the error of their ways ahead of the financial crisis of 2008.
Treasury prices spiked, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 3.73% from Wednesday’s 3.78%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil lost 42 cents to $79.23 U.S.
Gold prices tacked on $7 to $1,144 U.S.
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