Bay Street stocks continued to hover near the unchanged mark on Wednesday as strength in the technology sector has offset losses for mining stocks.
The S&P TSX Composite index made its way back toward -- even, at times, past -- the breakeven level, but ended the shy just 1.62 points shy of Tuesday’s close, at 10,918.91.
Technology stocks were up, as Celestica rallied 25 cents or 2.7% to lead the gainers. The stock ended the day at $9.64.
Mining stocks were down, as Thompson Creek Metals decreased $1.07 or 7.1% to $13.92 after the company announced it will offer 15.5 million common shares of the company at a price of $14.00 per share.
In other corporate news, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce stock slid $3.72 or 5.4% to $64.93 after the lender announced that its third quarter earnings per share were $1.02, compared with $0.11 a year ago. Analysts were looking for EPS of $1.39.
Rival banks Royal, Toronto-Dominion and National Bank of Canada are scheduled to report earnings tomorrow and Scotiabank is due on Friday. Bank of Montreal reported on Tuesday.
Canadian Pacific Railway was up $1.25 or 2.4% to $53.92, after the stock was upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Captial Markets. The railroad operator's target price was raised to $67 from $49 by the firm.
Eldorado Gold Corp. dropped 63 cents, or 5.3% to $11.33 after the company announced a deal to acquire the remaining shares of Sino Gold Mining Limited. The deal is worth about $2.2 billion Australian or $2.0 billion.
CAE Inc. added six cents, or 0.7% to $8.53, after the company announced a series of military contracts with prime contractors and other military customers valued above $100 million.
Corby Distilleries was unchanged at $14.01 after the company reported its net earnings for the fourth quarter increased 23% to $7.40 million from $6.00 million in the year-ago quarter. On a per share basis, net earnings increased 24% to $0.26 from $0.21 last year.
Uranium One Inc. went south seven cents or 2.7% in price to $2.51 after Titan Uranium announced an agreement to acquire the 50% interest held by Uranium One in the Sheep Mountain property in Wyoming. The deal is worth at least $850,000 U.S.
The Canadian dollar was off 0.98 cents to 91.12 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Among the 14 TSX subgroups, gainers nosed out losers eight to six, with real-estate gaining the most at 1.3%, followed by health-care stocks, up 0.8% and information technology ahead 0.6%.
The six losing stocks were weighed down mostly by metals and mining, down 1.3%, materials, off 0.6% and utilities, trailing Tuesday’s close 0.4%.
The TSX Venture Exchange pointed up 2.42 points, to 1,186.09, while the Nasdaq Canada Index lost 5.12 points to 740.31.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks struggled Wednesday afternoon, as investors welcomed positive reports on housing and durables goods, but remained on the sidelines after pushing the market to 2009 highs in the previous session.
The Dow Jones Industrials ended the day ahead 4.23 points to 9,543.52. The S&P 500 index gained 0.12 points to 1,028.12. The Nasdaq composite index raised its head above water by 0.20 points to 2,024.43.
The Dow closed at its highest point since Nov. 4. The S&P 500 squeaked out its highest close since Oct. 6. The Nasdaq ended at its highest point since Oct. 1.
The Dow has now gained for seven consecutive sessions, pulling out a decent summer rally.
After such a run, stocks were vulnerable to some choppiness Wednesday, despite the encouraging reading on new home sales.
Some experts said that a bottoming in housing is one of the reasons they are expecting solid third-quarter GDP growth. Growth will also be driven by inventory rebuilding across many sectors, they add, and a rebound in auto production in the aftermath of the government's Cash for Clunkers stimulus program.
Stocks have been more or less on the rise since bottoming in March. After hitting a more than 12-year low on March 9, the S&P 500 has risen 52%. The only notable pullback was a 7% slide in the run up to the start of the second-quarter earnings period.
On Tuesday, reports showed consumer confidence and housing are starting to recover -- and President Obama nominated Ben Bernanke for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Vonage Holdings jumped 36% in unusually active New York Stock Exchange trade, building on its recent gain. The provider of VoIP - Internet based calling - has seen its stock bounce over 300% in the last week on speculation that the company can stay afloat, despite weaker revenue and subscriber growth.
Human Genome also moved on speculation that the company could be bought out by GlaxoSmithKline, its partner on several drugs, according to published reports.
On things economic, a report on orders for durable goods -- big-ticket items meant to last three years or longer -- showed an increase that outpaced expectations. July durable goods orders rose 4.9%, according to the Commerce Department. This was greater than the 3.2% increase that was forecast by a Briefing.com's consensus of economists.
The government revised its figure for June, to a decrease of 1.3%, previously reported as a 2.2% drop.
July new home sales rose to a 433,000-unit annualized rate from a revised 395,000-unit rate in June. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast sales at a 390,000-unit annual rate.
On Tuesday, an S&P/Case Shiller report showed that home prices rose 2.9% in the second quarter versus the first, the first quarterly rise in three years.
Treasury prices gave back some ground, and the drop in prices raised the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.44% from 3.43% Tuesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil lost 62 cents to $71.39 U.S.
Gold prices ended unchanged at $946 U.S. an ounce.
