The Toronto stock market was higher Wednesday as commodity stocks advanced amid data showing evidence of weak but better-than-expected growth in U.S. private sector employment and the American service sector.
The S&P TSX Composite Index ended the day higher by 62.45 points, to 11,845.05.
Among gold sector entries, Barrick Gold advanced 90 cents to $43.36 while Goldcorp Inc. improved 95 cents to $40.71.
Consumer discretionary stocks were also supportive with Shaw Communications up 67 cents to $20.97.
The base metals sector was down with September copper in New York up four cents at $3.40 U.S. a pound. Thompson Creek Minerals gained 34 cents to $19.94 while Western Coal Corp. dropped 12 cents to $4.17.
The TSX energy sector was off as oil prices were down slightly despite a report which showed a bigger than expected drawdown of U.S. crude inventories last week.
Suncor Energy declined 23 cents to $34.48.
The tech sector was pulled down by market heavyweight Research in Motion Ltd. The BlackBerry maker's shares dropped $2.41 or 4.3% to $54.36 on volume of more than three million shares after several countries in emerging markets said they will ban services such as email and messaging on BlackBerrys due to national security concerns.
Countries such as United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia want to ban some of the device’s services because governments can’t monitor content as it passes through the system. But RIM said it won’t compromise user privacy on the BlackBerry.
RIM officially unveiled its latest smartphone Tuesday, a new touchscreen model with a slide-out keyboard designed to challenge Apple’s iPhone.
On the earnings front, fertilizer producer Agrium Inc. reported its second-highest quarterly net earnings of $506 million U.S. in the second quarter, compared with earnings of $370 million a year ago. Net sales in the quarter rose to nearly $4.4 billion from $4.1 billion U.S. and its shares rose $2.47 to $67.55.
Industrial products maker ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. says profits moved higher in the first quarter, and that the company plans to separate its troubled Photowatt solar energy division.
The company said consolidated net income was $6.4 million for the three months ended June 27, an increase from $300,000 in the comparable period ended June 28, 2009. Revenues dipped to $151.1 million from $152.7 million. ATS shares rose 25 cents to $6.60.
Shares in Enbridge Inc. picked up a nickel to $51.45 after it offered to buy up to 200 homes in the area of southern Michigan affected by a rupture of one of its oil pipelines. The spill dumped millions of litres of oil into a southern Michigan waterway.
The Canadian dollar picked up 0.56 to 98.25 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 14 TSX subgroups, nine ended the session higher. Materials jumped 2.3%, gold was 2.1% better and consumer staples garnered 1.1%.
Of the five laggards, information technology was the biggest slider at 1.2%, health-care slipped 0.5% and real-estate subsided 0.3%.
The TSX Venture Exchange improved 12.38 points to 1,453.46 while the Nasdaq Canada index shed 11.93 points to 633.58.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks held modest gains Wednesday as reports on private sector hiring and activity in the service sector helped ease concerns about the pace of the economic recovery
The Dow Jones industrial average moved ahead 44.05 points to close at 10,680.43.
The S&P 500 index picked up 6.78 points to 1,127.24, while the tech-rich Nasdaq composite index improved 20.05 points to 2,303.57.
The market was supported by a larger-than-expected gain in private sector employment and a report that showed the services sector grew in July for the seventh month in a row. But investors said trading was subdued amid ongoing concerns about the economic outlook ahead of a key report from the U.S. Labor Department later this week.
Investors were also chastened after a news report said officials in China have directed banks to conduct a new round of tests to assess, among other things, the impact of a 60% drop in housing prices. The report, which cited an unnamed source, raised worries that China's red-hot housing market could be in for a hard landing.
In company news, Intel said it has agreed to settle antitrust charges levied by the Federal Trade Commission without paying a fine, though the chipmaker did agree to refrain from some activities designed to force its competition out of the market.
Intel was accused of refusing to sell chips to some computer manufacturers that also bought chips from rival companies and paying other manufacturers rebates in exchange for promises not to use microchips manufactured by Intel's competitors.
Shares of the Dow component were unchanged in afternoon trading.
BP said Wednesday that the Gulf of Mexico Macondo well "appears to have reached a static condition -- a significant milestone," as a result of a procedure carried out Tuesday. Shares eased 1.5%.
Barnes & Noble put itself up for sale late Tuesday. The board of directors believes the bookseller's shares are "significantly undervalued." The company has hired financial adviser Lazard to explore "strategic alternatives," which may include selling the company. Shares rose 20%.
Shares of Priceline were up more than 20% after the online travel company reported second-quarter results that easily beat analysts' expectations.
Toyota Motor said that it swung to a profit in its latest quarter and boosted its full-year sales outlook. Shares rose more than 1%.
Time Warner, the parent company of CNNMoney.com and Fortune, posted earnings of 49 cents U.S. per share on revenue of $6.4 billion U.S., topping the consensus forecasts of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The media company also raised its outlook for earnings growth for all of 2010. Shares rose 2%.
On the economic front, investors first welcomed payroll processor ADP's report on private sector employment in July, which showed a growth for a sixth straight month.
ADP said private-sector employers added 42,000 jobs to their payrolls in June, following an upwardly revised 19,000 increase in June. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected employers to add 25,000 jobs last month.
In another report, the Institute for Supply Management said its non-manufacturing index rose to 54.3 in July from 53.8 in June, with a reading above 50 indicating continued growth in the service sector. Economists were expecting the index to edge down to a reading of 53.0.
Treasury prices lost ground, boosting yields on the 10-year note to 2.95% from Tuesday’s 2.91%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil was nine cents lower to $82.46 U.S.
Gold prices ended the day ahead nine dollars to $1,196 U.S. an ounce.
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