The Toronto stock market remained in the red Friday afternoon after recovering from a near 100-point plunge earlier in the session amid renewed concern over European debt woes and heightening tensions between the Koreas.
The S&P TSX Composite Index fell Friday 53.10 points to wind up the day and the week at 12,892.71
The loonie swooned a full cent against the U.S. dollar to 98.02 cents U.S.
The consumer discretionary sector was one of the few advancers as U.S. retailers reported long lineups and strong sales on Friday. Even so, shares in Indigo Books and Music lost seven cents to $15.
Shares in Suncor Energy Inc. fell 39 cents to $34.16 and shares in base metals miner Teck Resources were down 56 cents at $49.24.
Barrick Gold Corp. lost 26 cents to $51.85.
Taseko Mines Ltd. shares fell eight cents to $4.59. Questions have been raised over unusually heavy trading in the weeks before the federal environment minister denied approval for a key project, the Prosperity gold mine.
The RCMP said Friday it had been made aware of the allegations of a government leak and possible insider trading but that no decision had been made on whether to launch a criminal investigation into the matter.
The financial sector was down, with TD Bank leading the decline, down 50 cents at $74.81.
Investors are positioning themselves ahead of earnings season for Canada’s Big Five banks beginning next week.
National Bank of Canada added 56 cents at $68.58. Analysts say the Montreal-based bank has the best odds of raising its dividend when it announces its fourth-quarter earnings.
In other Canadian corporate news, Quebecor Inc. received the green light from the CRTC to launch Sun TV’s new 24-hour television news service.
The CRTC said it was granting the network a Category 2 specialty service licence for five years.
That means the new station will need to negotiate with cable and satellite carriers for a place in their lineup. Shares in the media company gained a dime to $36.72.
Heroux-Devtek has been awarded a long-term contract to provide landing gear for French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation’s new business jet program.
The Montreal-area maker of aerospace and industrial products said Friday it has been contracted to design, develop, fabricate, assemble and help win certification for the new landing gear system. Its stock gained seven cents to $6.05.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX/Venture Exchange regained 7.99 points to 2,057 while the Nasdaq Canada index gave back 4.37 points to 729.45.
In Toronto, all but four of the 14 subgroups were lower early Friday afternoon. Metals and mining stocks tied with energy stocks, losing 0.8% each, while global base metals shed 0.7% each.
The four gainers were led by health-care stocks, up 0.6%, while utilities rallied 0.4% and consumer discretionaries tacked on 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks sold off Friday as worries about Europe's debt crisis intensified, overshadowing an early frenzy of Black Friday shopping.
At the closing bell, which came around 1 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrials surrendered 95.28 points, to 11,092.
The S&P 500 was down 8.95 points to 1,189.40. The Nasdaq Composite Index demurred 8.56 points to 2,534.56.
For the week, the Dow slipped 1%, and the S&P fell 0.8%, while the Nasdaq edged up 0.7%.
Concern about the health of European economies has been weighing on stocks in recent weeks and continued to loom over investors Friday, pressuring world markets and dragging the euro sharply lower.
But with many investors out for the Thanksgiving holiday week, trading volume was more than 30% lighter than usual, according to some experts. And thin trading tends to lead to exaggerated market moves.
Ireland's agreement last weekend to accept a bailout package helped soothe investors' nerves Wednesday. But on Friday, Standard & Poor's slashed the credit ratings of Anglo Irish Bank, the Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks and Irish Life & Permanent, saying the creditworthiness of the four banks had weakened.
Shares of the Bank of Ireland sank 7%, while Allied Irish Bank shares slipped 6%.
And now, other eurozone nations are raising red flags.
Portugal Telecom edged down about 2%, while shares of Spanish bank Banco Santander fell nearly 5%.
The selling spilled over to U.S. banks. Shares of Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase all headed lower.
All Dow components but one ended the session in the red, with Chevron and Hewlett-Packard among the biggest losers.
Elsewhere in company news, Del Monte Foods, the pet food and consumer products manufacturer, agreed on Thursday to be purchased by a group of investors led by private equity firm KKR in a deal worth $5.3 billion U.S.
The buyers will pay $19.00 U.S. per share in cash -- a premium of roughly 40% over Del Monte's share price, before rumours of the deal elevated shares in recent weeks. Shares in Del Monte gained 84 cents U.S., or 4.7%, to $18.83 U.S.
But with no economic reports or corporate results on the agenda, the few investors in the market took their cues from developments overseas -- including the volatile situation on the Korean peninsula. Investors were also worried about China's efforts to avoid an economic crash landing by curbing bank lending.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury inched up, lowering the yield to 2.86% from 2.91% late Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil fell a nickel a barrel to $83.81 U.S. The price of gold dumped $9.79 to $1.357.94 U.S. an ounce.
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