Toronto's main index continued to hang around the breakeven point Thursday afternoon, as weakness among industrials has nearly offset gains among base metals producers.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index was ahead 23.52 points shortly before the closing bell to 10,710.35, improving on Wednesday’s modest gains.
Bombardier Aerospace, a unit of Bombardier Inc., said that it has terminated its firm and conditional order purchase agreement with Jet Republic. The order for 110 Learjet 60 XR aircraft, consisting of 25 firm orders and 85 conditional orders, to Jet Republic was originally announced on June 20, 2008.
Bombardier stock was down 17 cents, or 4.1%, to $3.97
Among metals producers, Teck Cominco shares were up 69 cents, or 2.5% to $28.35.
Other gainers on Bay Street include Neo Material Technologies and Osisko Mining which received final authorization from the province of Quebec to build its 6.3-million-ounce Canadian Malartic gold mine.
Lululemon was raised to "hold" from "underweight" by analyst Edward Yruma of KeyBanc Capital Markets. Shares were up 51 cents, or 2.5% to $21.14.
The gold sector was ahead as Goldcorp Inc. gained 12 cents to $38.46.
In other corporate news, Enerplus Resources Fund units declined 88 cents, or 3.9% to $21.71 as it grabbed a toehold in the northeastern United States' promising Marcellus shale gas play.
It is paying $406 million U.S. to Chief Oil & Gas LLC and its affiliates Chief Exploration & Development LLC and a limited partnership managed by Tug Hill Inc., to acquire part of their interests in the Marcellus play.
On the economic front, Canadian wholesale sales rose in June for the first time in nine months, led by automobiles and food products. Statistics Canada says sales advanced 0.6% to $40.4 billion. Economists expected a 0.2% increase. Factoring out price changes, wholesale sales increased 1%, the agency said.
The data may indicate the recession that began last year may be coming to an end after the Bank of Canada cut its benchmark lending rate to a record 0.25%. The central bank predicted last month the economy will begin expanding this quarter.
Sales of motor vehicle and automobile parts jumped 3.3%, the fifth straight increase in the category. Excluding automobiles, sales were up 0.1%.
The Canadian dollar advanced 0.66 cents, to 91.93 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 14 TSX subgroups, losers nosed out gainers eight to six. Industrials were the worst off, losing 0.7%, consumer discretionaries were off 0.6%, information technology stocks were down 0.5%.
Among the gainers, metals and mining led the charge, up 1%, real-estate gained 0.9%, materials advanced 0.7%.
The TSX Venture Exchange was up 7.44 points, to 1,184.39, while the Nasdaq Canada Index strengthened 17.06 points to 744.10
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks rallied Thursday, with financial and technology shares spearheading the advance as a report showing surprise growth in the manufacturing sector and gains in overseas markets propelled Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrials finished 70.84 points in the black, at 9,350.05. The S&P 500 index was 10.91 points to 1,007.37. The Nasdaq composite index was better by 19.98 points to 1,989.22.
A worse-than-expected jobless claims report unnerved investors in the early going, but the surprise rise in manufacturing reversed any losses, giving the market support for the rest of the session.
Financial shares were buoyant, with Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo were among the stocks boosting the index.
AIG rallied 21% after the insurer's new CEO said he expects the company to pay back the billions in loans it has taken to stay afloat.
Stocks managed to advance Wednesday, in the middle of a choppy week on Wall Street. After topping out at fresh 2009 highs last week, investors have struggled to push stocks higher this week. Between the March 9 lows and last week, the S&P 500 rallied 50%.
But bets that the economy is stabilizing have been undercut lately by worries about the jobs market and its impact on the already hard-hit consumer.
The day brought a mix of economic news, including reports on manufacturing and the labour market.
The Philadelphia Fed index, a regional reading on manufacturing, climbed to plus 4.2 in August from negative 7.5 in July. Economists expected it to improve to negative 2. Any reading that is positive implies expansion in the sector.
Also on the upside, the Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators (LEI) rose 0.6% in July after rising a revised 0.8% in June. LEI was expected to have risen 0.7%.
But the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment rose last week versus forecasts for a drop. The Department of Labor reported 576,000 new claims last week from a revised 561,000 in the previous week. Forecasts were for claims to drop to 550,000, according to a Briefing.com survey of economists.
A report from the Mortgage Bankers Association said 13% of Americans are either late on their mortgage payments or in foreclosure, a record-high number.
Treasury prices climbed, pushing down the yields on the 10-year note to 3.42% from Wednesday’s 3.46%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil gained 12 cents to $72.54 U.S.
Gold prices faded $3 to $942 U.S. an ounce.
