The Toronto stock market headed upwards Wednesday, amid major acquisition activity in the real estate sector and significant cost-cutting moves from Canadian Pacific Railway.
The S&P/TSX composite index approached noon up 59.94 points to 12,197.12
The Canadian dollar was up 0.21 of a cent to 100.92 cents U.S.,
A group led by KingSett Capital is proposing a $4.4-billion takeover of Primaris Retail Real Estate Investment Trust, one of Canada’s largest shopping mall operators.
At the same time, industry leader RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust has conditionally agreed to buy five regional malls and three other shopping centres currently owned by Primaris. RioCan values that part of the Primaris portfolio at $1.1 billion. Primaris units surged 13.9% to $26.24 while RioCan units rose 28 cents to $27.24.
Canadian Pacific Railway plans to bring down operating costs by cutting about a quarter of its workforce, or 4,500 employees, by 2016.
The cuts are part of a plan to increase annual revenue growth between 4-7% from 2012 levels as well as reduce its full-year operating ratio, a closely watched measure of how much revenue is required to run the business, to the mid-60s range by 2016. CP shares ran ahead $3.49 to $96.49.
Commodity prices were mixed and the mining sector advanced as March copper edged up one cent at $3.66 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources gained 83 cents to $34.08 while First Quantum Minerals climbed 50 cents to $20.88.
The industrials group was up as Canadian National Railways rose 40 cents to $89.36.
The energy sector gained as Canadian Natural Resources was ahead 17 cents to $27.60.
Iamgold slipped 44 cents to $11 and Goldcorp Inc. was off 67 cents to $37.18.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eased 8.88 points to 1,183.98.
In all, 10 of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher by noon, led by metals and mining, ahead 2.2%, real-estate, up 1.4%, and industrials, gaining 1.3%.
The four laggards were weighed mostly by gold, off 1.3%, materials, information technology, ticking 0.6% lower, and materials, 0.3% to the bad.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks shook off earlier losses Wednesday and spiked higher as investors remain cautious ahead of jobs data due later this week and an uncertain outlook for taxes.
The Dow Jones Industrials zoomed 109.63 points to 13,061.40
The S&P 500 recovered 6.17 points to 1,413.22 and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 9.83 points to 2,986.86
Bank stocks gained after Citigroup announced plans to cut 11,000 jobs and take a $1-billion U.S. charge in the fourth quarter as part of
a "repositioning" effort under newly appointed CEO Michael Corbat. Shares of Citi were up nearly 4%. Bank of America, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley were also higher.
In corporate news, mining company Freeport-McMoRan announced plans to buy Plains Exploration & Production Company and McMoRan Exploration in transactions totaling $20 billion. The move, which creates a new player in the natural gas market, sent shares of Freeport-McMoRan down 14%.
Nasdaq announced late Tuesday that Facebook will be joining its marquee Nasdaq-100 index next week.
Pandora shares plunged more than 13% after the Internet radio service issued a disappointing outlook for sales and earnings late Tuesday.
Shares of Nokia rose following an announcement that it has partnered with China Mobile to launch a new version of its Lumia smartphone for the Chinese market.
Stocks have lacked momentum this week as the fight over tax hikes and spending cuts in Washington shows no sign of progress.
President Obama and Congress are at loggerheads over how to resolve the fiscal cliff, a stalemate that puts the nation's economy at
risk.
Ahead of the market open, payroll processor ADP reported that U.S. private-sector employers added 118,000 jobs in November. That was slightly worse than expected, and smaller than the gain of 157,000 jobs in the previous month.
Investors will be keeping close tabs on the labour market ahead of the government's monthly jobs report due Friday.
New orders for manufactured goods unexpectedly rose 0.8% in October, according to government data. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected a decline of 0.1%.
Treasury prices picked up ground, lowering yields on the 10-year note to 1.59% from Tuesday’s 1.61%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gave back 42 cents to $88.08 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices settled back $3.30 an ounce to $1,692.50 U.S.
