Canadian stocks fell as metal producers declined on concern growth slower growth in China and South Korea will crimp demand.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed Thursday’s session to the downside 58.73 points to 13,401.48
The Canadian dollar settled 0.32 cents to 101.1 cents U.S.
Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest base-metals and coal producer, dropped 1.9% to $63.04, as copper declined for the first time in three days.
Research in Motion Ltd. gained 1% to $63.29 after the Wall Street Journal said the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone has come up with ways to give India’s security agencies some services. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, rose 1.4% to $38.19 as oil traded near $92 a barrel.
Equinox Minerals Ltd. fell 1.5% to $5.82.
Barrick Gold Corp. slumped 4.9% to $46.88 as the price of the metal slipped for the first time this week after concerns the European debt crisis will spread eased. Spain sold bonds for the first time this year, buoyed by Portugal’s success selling debt yesterday and European efforts to bolster the region’s sovereign-bailout fund. Italian bonds gained following a debt auction.
Kinross Gold Corp. fell 3% to $17.05, while Goldcorp Inc. slid 3.4% to $41.56.
Inmet Mining Corp. rose 6.2% to $79.39, the most since Dec. 7, after agreeing to merge with Lundin Mining Corp. to create a Canadian copper company with a market value of about $9 billion as the metal traded near to a record. Lundin fell 1.9% to $7.75.
Shaw Communications Inc. climbed 1.9% to $20.59. Canada’s largest cable and satellite television provider by subscribers reported first-quarter revenue of $1.08 billion, beating the average analyst forecast of $1.05 billion.
Elsewhere in earnings news, shares in media company Astral Media Inc. slipped 17 cents to $41.22 as it reported a first-quarter profit of $53.3 million as revenues rose 7%. The company’s net income was down from a year earlier, when Astral and other media companies benefitted from a regulatory fee reversal and Ontario tax adjustments, but up if those onetime items were excluded.
Astral dipped 0.8% to $41.06.
Economically speaking, Statistics Canada reports the trade deficit narrowed to $81 million from $1.5 billion in October.
Merchandise imports declined 3.2% in November, led by a 15.1% drop in volumes of energy products.
Export volumes fell 2% but the value of exports increased by 0.8% to $34.3 billion as prices rose in most sectors.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange pitched backward 14.46 points to 2,289 while the Nasdaq Canada index lost 2.35 points to 787.40
In Toronto, gainers nosed out losers eight to six. Utilities and eal-estate stocks gained 0.6%, while metals and mining issues moved forward 0.4%.
The six laggards were weighed mostly by gold, down 2.9%, materials, off 2.1% and global base metals faded 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, investors took a step back Thursday, with stocks edging lower ahead of the next batch of corporate earnings reports, starting with Intel after the closing bell.
The Dow Jones Industrials tailed off 23.54 points to close at 11,731.90.
The S&P 500 dipped 2.20 points to 1,283.76. The Nasdaq Composite Index was lower by 2.04 points to 2,735.29
The bulk of the blue-chip index's decline came from Merck, whose shares dropped 6% after the drugmaker said it stopped giving an experimental blood clotting drug to certain patients in a clinical trial. Alcoa, and Microsoft were the other big decliners on the Dow.
Gainers included Home Depot, Caterpillar and Verizon, which just announced plans to sell Apple's iPhone early next month.
But bank stocks took a breather Thursday as investors geared up for JPMorgan Chase, which is slated to report earnings before Friday's opening bell.
Share of Marathon Oil surged 6% on reports that it will split into two separate companies. That comes one day after manufacturing firm ITT said it would split itself up into three separate entities. Shares of ITT fell more than 2%.
Shares of Williams Sonoma slid more than 4% after the company boosted its fourth-quarter earnings and sales guidance following strong holiday sales. Analysts said the company's earnings growth rate has slowed, and investors have grown accustomed to the upbeat outlooks.
Shares of financial services company Green Dot Corp rose 1% after the announcement that thousands of Americans will get tax refunds on a prepaid card instead of a paper check. The Visa card will be issued by Green
Investors faced a full day of economic reports Thursday.
The Department of Labor released its weekly jobless claims report before the opening bell. The government said that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment climbed to 445,000 last week.
This was much higher than forecast of 415,000 claims.
The government also said that continuing claims -- a measure of Americans who have been receiving benefits for a week or more -- fell to 3.8 million. This was lower than the forecast of 4.08 million.
The Producer Price Index, a measure of wholesale inflation, rose 1.1% in December, according to the Commerce Department. This was higher than the expected increase of 0.8%.
The Commerce Department said the trade balance was practically unchanged at $38.3 billion U.S. This was better than expected. The trade balance was expected to have widened to $41.0 billion U.S. in November.
Prices on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury reversed direction and gained ground, lowering the yield to 3.30% from Wednesday’s 3.35%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil for February delivery dipped 80 cents to $91.06 U.S. a barrel
Gold for February delivery dropped $1.20 to $1,387 U.S. an ounce.
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