Markets in Toronto came back to life Tuesday, after hitting a five-week low the day before. Commodity prices perked on hearing more favourable economic news from offshore.
The S&P/TSX composite index soared 177.74 points, or 1.5%, to end Tuesday at 12,407.70
The Canadian dollar fell 0.63 cents to 101.34 cents U.S.
Among the hotter stocks on the Canadian market today, Birchcliff Energy said the Phase III expansion of its Pouce Coupe South gas plant has started processing gas about one month ahead of schedule. Current production is now a record of about 25,500 barrels of oil equivalent a day, and it expects to exceed its 2012 exit guidance. Stocks leaped 41 cents, or 5.4%, to $8.06
BMO started coverage of Gildan Activewear at outperform, saying the company is well positioned to leverage its competitive strength given new manufacturing capacity that's coming on line.
Separately, Gildan responded to a lawsuit filed against it last week that alleged trademark infringement and unfair competition related
to a shipment of product that was incorrectly branded. Gildan said it's conducting an internal review of the matter. The stock zoomed $1.11, or 3.4% to $33.56.
Inmet said Petaquilla Minerals Ltd.'s directors' circular in reponse to Inmet's takeover proposal doesn't provide any new information that would cause Inmet to change its offer. Inmet also said that, since the outcome of its offer isn't material to the development of its Cobre Panama project, it's "prepared to let the offer expire." Inmet mining jumped $1.23, or 2.7%, to $47.64, while Petaquilla was flat at 62 cents.
Colossus said the first underground drill holes at its 75%-owned Serra Pelada gold-platinum-palladium project returned better-than-expected widths and grades and surface drilling encountered more high grades. Colossus climbed 32 cents, or 6.2%, to $5.52.
BMO upgraded Air Canada to outperform from market perform and more than doubled its target price to $2.50, citing a positive outlook on cost-cutting measures and continued favorable revenue trends, as well as its ability to defer pension-funding requirements "for the forseeable future." The carrier’s stock got three cents worth of lift, or 2%, to $1.50.
Primero said it will expand its San Dimas gold and silver mine in Mexico to 2,500 metric tons a day, spending a total of $14.4 million. Primero stock jumped 24 cents, or 3.4%, to $7.25.
Harry Winston said the rough diamond market has stabilized through the third quarter as demand has improved. It said it expects higher than normal rough diamond inventory at Oct. 31, but said a large portion of the inventory carried at July 31 has been sold. Winston stock perked 33 cents, or 2.5%, to $13.34.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported this morning that non-resident investors acquired $6.9 billion of Canadian securities in August, favouring debt instruments over equity in contrast to July. Canadian investors reduced their holdings of foreign securities by $1.7 billion, following three straight months of acquisition.
Elsewhere, the agency said that manufacturing sales shot 1.5% higher to $49.5 billion in August, to highs they haven’t seen since March 2012.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange remained positive by 17.05 points to 1,299.78
All 14 Toronto subgroups were positive on the day, led by metals and mining, up 2.4%, global base metals, gaining 2.3%, and gold, sparking 2.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks advanced Tuesday as investors welcomed a batch of strong corporate earnings and digested the latest inflation data.
The Dow Jones Industrial average jumped 127.55 points, or 1%, to 13,551.80
The S&P 500 climbed 14.72 points to 1,454.85, while the tech-rich Nasdaq leaped 36.99 points to 3,101.17
A slew of better-than-expected earnings drove the gains.
Goldman Sachs posted profit and revenue for the third quarter that topped expectations. Shares of the investment bank rose slightly following the news.
Johnson & Johnson logged quarterly earnings that beat analysts' expectations, also sending shares higher. Mattel posted a profit that exceeded forecasts, as revenue rose for the first time since last year. UnitedHealth shares climbed after the health insurer delivered robust third-quarter earnigns and raised its full-year outlook.
Intel and IBM shares were also higher, as the two will report after the close.
But stealing the spotlight on the corporate front was Citigroup's unexpected announcement that its CEO, Vikram Pandit, is stepping down Michael Corbat, who previously served as Citi's CEO of Europe, Middle East and Africa, was named as his replacement.
Citigroup's president and chief operating officer, John Havens, also resigned. Shares of Citigroup rose following the surprising shakeup at the top.
What’s more, shares of Murphy Oil were sharply higher after the company said it split into two separate companies, separating its exploration and production operations from its retail business of selling gasoline.
Coca-Cola shares were down slightly after the company missed revenue forecasts.
Fossil shares jumped after an analyst at Citigroup upgraded the stock to a buy rating with a $100 U.S. price target, up from netural.
Economically speaking, the September reading of the Consumer Price Index, the government's key metric for inflation, rose 0.6%. That's higher than the 0.5% increase that economists polled by Briefing.com had been expecting.
Compared to a year earlier, prices have risen 2%. Based on this data, the Social Security Administration announced that Social Security recipients will receive a 1.7% cost-of-living increase in 2013.
Industrial production rose 0.4% in September, according to the Federal Reserve. The reading was better than analysts were expecting.
The price of the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury plunged on the day, boosting the yield to 1.72% from Monday’s 1.66%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices reacquired 20 cents to $92.05 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices were up $10.20 to $1,747.80 U.S. an ounce.
