The Toronto stock market was slightly lower Monday amid falling commodity prices and while traders looked to a heavy week of earnings news from corporate Canada.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 29.05 points to greet noon Monday at 12,772.18
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.49 cent to 99.24 cents U.S.
BlackBerry also weighed on the TSX, falling 59 cents, or 3.6%, to $15.92 as Forbes reported that Home Depot has decided to ditch the approximately 10,000 BlackBerry smartphones used by its executives. The home improvement chain is reportedly supplying its corporate staff with Apple’s iPhone.
The TSX gold sector lost ground Goldcorp Inc. shed 78 cents to $35.45.
The energy sector fell as Imperial Oil lost 50 cents to $42.55.
The base metals sector was also down as March copper was three cents lower at $3.73 U.S. a pound. Taseko Mines dipped seven cents to $3.26.
Cameco Corp. reported an 83% drop in net earnings in its fourth quarter to $45 million, or 11 cents per diluted share, largely due to a $168-million writedown on its Kintyre project in Australia and lower profits from its uranium business. Adjusted earnings came in at 60 cents, beating forecasts of 41 cents but its shares fell 79 cents to $20.92.
The industrials sector was the leading advancer as Canadian Pacific Railway climbed $2.29 to $116.05.
Financials also lifted the TSX as Manulife Financial ran up 38 cents to $15.22.
The fourth-quarter earnings season is winding down in the U.S. but Canadian investors will be taking in a slew of earnings reports this week.
In other corporate news, Brookfield Asset Management Inc. says it will pay $414 million U.S. to buy a portfolio of 19 apartment communities in three states in the U.S. Southeast. Most of the 4,892 units included in the deal are concentrated in Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., but some are also in the neighbouring states of South Carolina and Virginia. Brookfield shares added 34 cents to $39.16.
Onex Corp and its affiliates have agreed to sell their 50% interest in RSI Home Products for approximately $323 million U.S. The Onex
Group invested $318 million in October 2008 to acquire RSI preferred equity. The Toronto-based group says it will have received $471 million U.S., including prior distributions, when the sale closes. Onex shares were ahead 16 cents at $44.56.
Alacer Gold Corp. will pay a special dividend to distribute $70 million in cash from the sale of its 49% interest in the Frog’s Lake mine in Australia. Its shares ran ahead 14 cents to $4.54.
There is no major Canadian data due for release today.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange decreased 6.71 points to 1,199.10
Eight of the 14 Toronto subgroups were off, weighed by gold, down 2%, while materials lost 1.5% and energy stocks slid 0.6%.
The half-dozen gainers were led by industrials, up 0.6%, financials, up 0.4% and real-estate, gaining 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks drifted lower Monday, as investors had little economic or corporate news to set the tone.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 27.76 points by midday at 13,965.20
The S&P 500 index dipped 1.21 points to 1,516.72. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite slid 5.69 points to 3,188.18
Markets have had a good run so far in 2013. The Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 are both up nearly 7% and near their all-time highs, while the NASDAQ has gained nearly 6%.
So far, two-thirds of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported results for the fourth quarter, with 70% of them beating forecasts
This week, a few more quarterly results are expected from large corporations, including Coca-Cola, General Motors and PepsiCo
In company news, Google disclosed late Friday that former CEO and executive chairman Eric Schmidt plans to sell 3.2 million shares of his stock in the company, worth about $2.5 billion U.S. Shares of Google were lower.
Shares of Tesla Motors fell more than 3% in early trading after the New York Times published a scathing review of the Model S sedan over the weekend.
Shares of Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk sank 13% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it could not approve the company's diabetes drug. Sanofi, which makes a rival diabetes drug, were up nearly 3%.
On the economic front, the main event this week will probably be Wednesday's retail sales data. Economists expect modest improvement in sales during January
Prices on the 10-year U.S. Treasury faltered slightly, raising yields to 1.96% from Friday’s 1.95%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices recovered $1.10 to $96.82 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dropped $18.80 to $1,648.10 U.S. an ounce.
