The Toronto stock market enjoyed a strong, triple-digit advance as financials continued to run ahead on bank earnings that were better than expected.
Energy stocks also gave major support to the TSX as oil prices improved for a third straight day.
However, it was a choppy day on the New York markets, which were weak after earlier racking up strong gains on moves to increase aid to struggling banks while investors tried to look past much worse-than-expected earnings from General Motors Corp. and durable goods orders.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index soared 233.62 points to 8.165.92.
The main index was helped largely by rising bank stocks after TD Bank encouraged investors Wednesday, handing in an earnings report that beat expectations even as quarterly earnings fell 27% to $712 million. TD shares picked up another $1.86 to $37.71.
Today, the financial sector was up after CIBC reported first-quarter profit of $147 million, reversing a year-ago $1.46-billion loss. The bank booked $483 million in an after-tax loss on structured credit run-off activities. The quarterly dividend is unchanged at 87 cents and its shares rose $1.97 to $45.25.
Royal Bank reported its first-quarter profit fell 15% to $1.05 billion from $1.25 billion a year ago. Total revenue rose $6.94 billion from $5.65 billion and the quarterly dividend was unchanged at 50 cents per share. Royal Bank shares climbed $1.18 to $31.17.
And National Bank of Canada shares surged $2.50 to $36.85 as it reported that costs associated with its involvement in asset-backed commercial paper dragged down its first-quarter profit by more than 70% to $69 million.
Excluding the ABCP items, and a gain last year from the sale of a subsidiary, National Bank's net income for the first quarter was $253 million.
The Toronto market was supported by a significant rise in the energy sector as crude gained more than $2.50 U.S. Wednesday after data showed a smaller than expected rise in U.S. crude inventories last week, while gasoline inventories fell and production rose.
EnCana Corp. gained $1.88 to $49.98 and Petro-Canada rose $1.49 to $28.50.
The gold sector turned positive during the afternoon despite falling bullion prices. Goldcorp gained $1.16 to $36.15.
Investors also took in further indications of how the recession is hammering media companies.
Torstar Corp. the publisher of the Toronto Star and other papers, is warning that further restructuring and job cuts are on the way after the company posted a $211.2 million loss for the fourth quarter.
The company also took a $229.5-million writedown related to flagging revenues at its traditional media properties and slashed its annual dividend in half to 37 cents per share from 74 cents and its shares fell 39 cents to $6.
Shares in drugmaker Biovail Corp.fell 39 cents to $13.33 after it increased its earnings to $199.9 million U.S. for 2008. Fourth-quarter earnings were $120.4 million, up from a year-ago loss of $32 million.
The Canadian dollar tapered off in the afternoon, but still finished the day up 0.24 cents to 79.85 cents U.S.
BAYSTREET
Among the 13 TSX sub-groups, 11 were positive, financials the most so, advancing 6%, followed by metals and mining, up 5.7%, energy up 4.4%.
The two laggards were consumer staples, sliding 0.7% and information technology, off 0.4%.
The TSX Venture Exchange was ahead 7.84 points to 857.02 while the NASDAQ Canada index slipped 11.05 points, to 410.07
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones industrials index nosedived 88.81 points in the afternoon to finish at 7,182.08
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index ended the day 12.07 points in negative country, at 752.83, while the NASDAQ composite index dropped 33.96 to 1,391.47.
President Barack Obama's budget proposal reportedly outlines the possibility of spending up to $750 billion U.S. more for additional financial industry rescue efforts on top of the $700 billion that Congress has already authorized.
The British government set up a program to allow banks to access government insurance against future losses on bad assets.
Meanwhile, GM posted a $9.6-billion U.S. fourth-quarter loss and said it needs up to $30 billion U.S. in federal loans to stay out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and its shares were off 8% on the day.
U.S. manufacturers saw orders for big-ticket goods plunge a bigger-than-expected 5.2% in January. Orders have fallen for a record six straight months as global economic troubles cut into demand from customers in the United States and abroad.
Elsewhere on the economic front, new home sales plunged to an annual unit rate of 309,000 in January, the worst level since the government began keeping records in 1963. Economists thought sales would fall to 324,000 in the month, according to a Briefing.com survey. Sales stood at a 344,000 annual unit rate in December.
An earlier report showed that weekly jobless claims rose to a fresh 26-year high last week of 667,000 versus forecasts for a drop to 625,000. Claims stood at a revised 631,000 in the prior week.
In the financial sector, JPMorgan Chase & Co. shares ran up $1.90, or 8.7%, to $23.63 U.S. after it said today it will eliminate about 12,000 jobs as it folds in the operations of Washington Mutual Inc., which it acquired at the end of September.
Earlier this week, the bank announced plans to slash its quarterly dividend to five cents per share from 38 cents.
Chief executive Jamie Dimon said he is not predicting, but is ready for a recession lasting two years, a U.S. unemployment rate above 10% and a 40% peak-to-trough decline in home prices.
Citigroup is close to finalizing a deal for the government to increase its stake in the troubled bank to as much as 40%, according to reports. A deal was expected to be announced shortly. Citi shares tumbled 5%, erasing early gains.
Royal Bank of Scotland will dump £325 billion ($462.7 billion U.S.) in bad debt into the government program. RBS posted an annual loss of £24.14 billion ($34.4 billion U.S.), the biggest loss in British corporate history. In addition to participating in the government program, RBS announced a huge restructuring plan and said it will sell off certain assets.
Shares gained 17% in U.S. trading.
Swiss bank UBS has named Oswald Gruebel, the former head of Credit Suisse, as its new CEO, replacing its much-criticized CEO Marcel Rohner. Shares gained 12%.
Treasury prices tumbled, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.98% from 2.92% Wednesday.
The April crude contract in New York ran up $2.24 to $44.74 U.S. a barrel.
The April gold contract in New York declined $23.60 to $942.60 U.S. an ounce
