The Toronto stock market staged a modest advance Thursday after three straight sessions of triple-digit losses, led by a sharp rise in energy stocks on surging oil prices.
But early solid gains on New York markets disappeared as investors took in a weak earnings report from computer and printer company Hewlett-Packard Co., which helped send the Dow Jones industrials below an important psychological barrier.
The S&P TSX Composite Index faded from earlier gains to conclude the day ahead only 7.61 points at 8,183.56
The TSX tech sector was lower, however, as CGI Group fell 30 cents to $9.58.
But shares in Research In Motion Ltd. were up 22 cents to $53.04, even though the shares have plunged from $70.88 a week ago, before the BlackBerry maker said its fourth-quarter profits will come in at the lower end of the company's previous guidance and a Credit Sussex analyst cut his rating to under perform from neutral and slashed his earnings expectations for the February 2010 fiscal year.
The energy sector rose as Petro-Canada rose $1.07 to C$27.12 and EnCana Corp. gained 73 cents to $50.13.
Precision Drilling Trust units fell 20 cents to $2.80 after the energy services company announced a $250-million U.S. debt offering had been postponed due to currently unfavourable market conditions.
The financial sector was well off early highs but still up, as Royal Bank gained 71 cents to $27.69 but Manulife Financial fell 35 cents to $14.73.
The base metals sector ran up, as Teck Cominco Ltd. improved 12 cents to $4.27 and Ivanhoe Mines surged
Cameco Corp. shares were down $1.29 to $17.83 after the uranium miner said it is raising between $400 million and $460 million in an issue of new common stock "to strengthen its capital position and enhance its financial flexibility to allow it to take advantage of opportunities that may emerge from the current industry environment."
The gold sector was down as shares in Goldcorp Inc. were down $1.18 at $39.67 as the miner ended 2008 with its biggest-ever quarterly gold production and a 7% year-over-year increase in reserves, while booking fourth-quarter net income of $958.1 million U.S. thanks to a $985.7-million non-cash foreign exchange gain on revalued future tax liabilities.
In other earnings news, shares in home renovation supply retailer Rona gained 60 cents to $11.65 as the company said fourth-quarter profit slipped to $25.7 million from $30.5 million in the same quarter a year earlier.
Units in the Brick Group Income Fund fell $1.12 or 42.2% to $1.53 - and hit a new record low of $1.30 - after it said Wednesday that it has suspended its monthly distribution payments.
In economic news, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says housing starts fell 7.5% to about 211,056 units in 2008 from 2007.
But the agency forecast sharply lower levels of starts for the next two years and sliding home sales as the recession further discourages consumer confidence, with starts expected to be about 160,250 for 2009 and about 163,350 for 2010 followed by some improvement.
CMHC also said that existing home sales, as measured by the Multiple Listing Service, are expected to decline 14.6% during 2009 while the average price will slide 5.2%.
Statistics Canada's leading indicator composite index accelerated to 0.8% in January from 0.5% in December - the largest and most widespread decrease since the index began its decline in September.
The housing index contracted by 7% in January, its largest monthly decline since June 1990.
Still, consumer spending expanded, while furniture and appliance purchases rose, despite the slump in housing demand.
The Canadian dollar gained only slightly to 79.42 cents U.S.
BAYSTREET
Of the 13 TSX sub-groups, eight finished the day in a downward direction, gold off 4.3%, followed by materials, down 2.8% and information technology off 1.5%.
Positive stocks included energy up 3.2%, metals and mining stocks were up 1.3% and consumer staples advanced 0.7%.
The TSX Venture Exchange slumped 14.04 points to 901.78 while the NASDAQ Canada index shed 2.68 points, to 436.72
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones industrials index gave back 89.68 points to end Thursday at 7,465.95, a more-than-six-year low, as fears of a prolonged recession sent stock investors heading for the exits.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was 9.48 points down to 778.94, while the NASDAQ composite index gave back 25.15 points to 1,460.12.
Still stateside, Hewlett-Packard shares fell $3.23 or almost 10% to $30.85 U.S. after it said Wednesday that its profit dropped 13% to $1.85 billion U.S. in the latest quarter, dragged down by weakness in all major business lines except services, a division HP bulked up with its $13.9 billion U.S. acquisition of Electronic Data Systems last year.
Sales ticked up just 1% to $28.8 billion U.S., more than $3 billion short of analyst estimates. Things aren't expected to improve soon.
HP, the world's top seller of personal computers, also cut its 2009 guidance, but it was still in line with Wall Street's expectations.
Sprint Nextel reported a quarterly loss and said 1.3 million subscribers ditched its mobile phone service. But the loss narrowed from a year earlier and was smaller than analysts had expected. Revenue fell from the prior year and was shy of expectations. Investors focused on the positive and the stock rose 21%.
Investors also took in data showing jobless insurance claims for last week coming in around expectations and unchanged from the previous week at 627,000.
Wholesale inflation prices advanced more than expected last month, partly as a result of higher energy costs. The Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.8% after falling 1.9% in December.
Economists thought it would rise 0.3%. The so-called core PPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.4% after rising 0.2% in December. Economists thought it would rise just 0.1%.
Treasury prices slipped, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.81% from 2.75% Wednesday.
U.S. light crude oil for March delivery settled up $4.86 to $39.48 U.S.a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices spiked after the government said crude supplies fell last week for the first time in two months.
COMEX gold for April delivery fell $1.70 to settle at $976.50 U.S. an ounce.
