The Toronto stock market was lower Friday after a strengthening American currency pushed commodity prices and resource stocks lower at the end of a negative week.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed the day down 12.26 points to 13,377.16
The Canadian dollar settled back 0.67 cents to 103.23 cents U.S.
Oil has been volatile this week after data Wednesday showed that U.S. gasoline demand dropped 2.4 per cent last week while oil supplies grew more than twice as much as analysts expected.
Suncor Energy declined 31 cents to $38.57 while Canadian Natural Resources was down 59 cents to $39.41.
The July copper contract added one cent at $3.98 U.S. a pound and the TSX base metals group lost ground. Teck Resources dropped 93 cents to $44.85 and HudBay Minerals ran ahead 15 cents to $13.98.
The gold sector lost out, while Kinross Gold Corp. faded eight cents to $13.81 while Goldcorp Inc. advanced 47 cents to $46.28.
Financial stocks were also a weight as Manulife Financial moved down 22 cents to $17.25 while Sun Life Financial was down 24 cents to $30.18.
On the earnings front, conglomerate Power Corp. of Canada said it earned $216 million attributable to participating shareholders or 47 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31 compared with $165 million or 36 cents per diluted share a year ago. Revenue totaled $7.04 billion, down from $9.01 billion and its shares rose six cents to $28.36.
TMX Group Inc., operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange, reported that profits rose 13% in the first quarter to $64.3 million on stronger trading volumes. The company is in the midst of an attempted merger with the London Stock Exchange Group and its shares ticked 75 cents higher to $41.75.
Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corp. more than doubled its first-quarter profit to $38.9 million, as its revenue increased 84% over the comparable period of 2010. Its units rose 36 cents to $70.26.
Enerplus Corp. shares gained seven cents to $29.21 reported net profit of $29.5 million in the first quarter, reversing a much bigger loss in the same quarter of 2010. The Calgary-based oil and gas producer, with properties in Western Canada and parts of the United States, said the earnings compared with last year’s loss of $184 million.
On the economic front, figures released this morning by Statistics Canada revealed that March new motor vehicles went up 2.0% to 135,261 units, led by stronger sales of North American-built cars.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dumped 11.77 points to 2,038.22 while the Nasdaq Canada index stumbled 7.03 points to 660.51
In Toronto, all but two of the 14 subgroups were lower on the day. Global base metals sagged 1%, health-care was off 0.8%, and energy was down 0.4%.
The two gainers were utilities, which added 0.3%, and materials, which nosed up 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks fell Friday afternoon, with all three indexes down 1%, as the dollar gained ground and commodity prices pulled back.
The Dow Jones industrial average slid 100.17 points to 12,595.80, led lower by JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America
The S&P 500 slipped 10.88 points to 1,337.77. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 34.57 points to 2,828.47, Tech stocks CA Inc., Nvidia and Yahoo were among the worst performers on both indexes.
Stocks kicked off the session little changed Friday as investors took a step back at the end of a choppy week of trading. But the market fell under pressure in the afternoon as the dollar gained ground. The greenback rose 1% against the euro and 0.7% versus the British pound
Shares of Yahoo were down 2.6% after the company offered up more information about how it restructured Alipay. Yahoo was also the worst performer on the S&P 500 Wednesday as investors grew cautious after a regulatory filing raised questions about the value of Yahoo's China-based assets.
Economically speaking, a report from the government released Friday showed that consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 3.2% in April, with the bulk of increases coming from higher gas prices.
The University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment survey for May rose to 72.4, from 69.8 in April. Economists were expecting the figure to come in lower at 69.5.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury spiked, lowering yields to 3.19% from Thursday’s 3.23%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil for June delivery fell 34 cents in the afternoon to $99.31 U.S. a barrel.
Gold futures slipped 0.9% to $1,494.20 U.S. an ounce. Silver futures rose 0.4% to $34.95 U.S. an ounce
Related Stories
