The Toronto stock market confounded some of the experts who projected a decrease at Friday’s opening bell, as disappoint economic numbers – primarily those dealing with jobs and housing – trickled in.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 44.73 points to begin Friday at 12,800.65
The Canadian dollar fell below parity with the U.S. greenback, erasing 0.4 cents to 99.83 cents U.S.
In company news, gold miner Aurizon Mines Ltd. said it was in talks with a number of potential buyers, after rejecting an unsolicited $780-million offer from Alamos Gold Inc last month. Aurizon shares crept back four cents to $4.60
Oncolytics Biotech Inc. said a mid-stage trial of its experimental lung cancer drug showed that 95% of the patients experienced a reduction in the size of their tumours. Oncolytics shares declined seven cents, or 1.9%, to $3.57
On the domestic economic sheet, Statistics Canada gave out mixed signals on the job front in January. The agency said employment decreased 21,900 (experts had projected a net job gain of 5,000), but lower numbers of those seeking work pushed the unemployment rate down 0.1 percentage points to 7.0%.
The nation’s number-crunchers also noted that our merchandise imports fell 2.8% in December while exports declined 0.9%. As a result, Canada's trade deficit with the world dipped from $1.7 billion in November to $901 million in December.
Finally, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation declared that both single and multiple housing starts plunged last month, particularly in Ontario. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts came in at 160,577 units in January, down from 197,118 in December.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange decreased 1.8 points to 1,204.31
All but three of the 14 Toronto subgroups were positive to start Friday. Information technology stocks led the pack, gaining 1%, while health-care stocks were ahead 0.7%, and global base metals picked up 0.6%
Utilities weighed mostly on the three laggards, falling 0.8%, metals and mining stocks were 0.4% to the bad, while telecoms weakened 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Earnings were back in focus as Friday’s session got started, and some better-than-expected results helped pushed markets higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average hiked 66.23 points to begin the day at 14.010.30
The S&P 500 index sparked 7.36 points to 1,516.75. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite recovered 26.97 points to 3,192.11, as traders liked what they saw from AOL and LinkedIn.
Markets have had a good run so far this year. The Dow and S&P 500 are both up nearly 7% and near their all-time highs, while the NASDAQ has gained nearly 6%.
AOL shares surged more than 11%, after the web portal reported revenue growth for the first time in eight years. Fourth quarter profits were in line with expectations.
Shares of LinkedIn hit an all-time high, one day after the company reported a spike in membership. The online network targeted to professionals handily beat earnings and revenue estimates for the fourth quarter.
Apple continued to move higher after the company said it would consider additional ways to return cash to shareholders.
Credit ratings agency Moody's also reported profits that met expectations. Still, shares moved down more than 3% on worries that the U.S. government might sue the firm over its ratings of mortgage securities, as it did rival Standard & Poor’s earlier this week.
Economically speaking, the U.S. trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, down from $48.6 billion U.S. the previous month, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Wholesale inventories for December dropped 0.1% compared to expectations that those inventories would rise 0.3%.
Prices on the 10-year U.S. Treasury flopped, raising yields to 1.98% from Thursday’s 1.95%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices grew 56 cents to $96.39 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dropped $3.60 to $1,667.70 U.S. an ounce.
