The Toronto stock market was little changed mid-afternoon Friday, as the financial sector backed off after a series of gains in the wake of solid earnings report from most of the big banks.
The S&P TSX Composite index managed to propel itself ahead 32.75 points today, to end the week at 10,966.71, an improvement of about 135 points from last Friday.
The financial sector fell even as Scotiabank reported third-quarter profit fell to $931 million or 87 cents a share from a year-earlier $1.01 billion even as revenues increased.
Although the earnings were three cents a share higher than analysts had predicted, expectations were raised over the course of the week by much better-than-expected results from Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion and National Bank of Canada
Scotiabank's performance was dragged down by loan loss provisions that jumped to $554 million from $159 million a year ago. The stock skidded $1.81, or 3.8%, on the day, to $46.30.
Toronto's energy sector moved higher. Prices have been volatile this week as traders try to gauge demand prospects. On the TSX, EnCana Corp. rose $1.39 or 2.4% to $58.48.
In Toronto, the gold sector added strength as Goldcorp Inc. was ahead 91 cents, or 2.3% to $40.38.
Telecoms were also supportive. Rogers Communications gained 79 cents, or 2.7%, to $30.13 while BCE Inc. climbed 55 cents to $26.87, a leap of 2.1%.
In other corporate news, power generator TransAlta Corp. extended Thursday its hostile offer for Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. by two weeks. TransAlta's $4.55-per-share offer for the Calgary-based green energy producer was to have expired Thursday, but will now be open until Sept. 11 unless withdrawn or extended again.
TransAlta shares moved down 52 cents to $21.26 while Canadian Hydro Developers was off two cents to $5.10.
And drugmaker Patheon Inc. said it may go ahead with a bid by Swiss-based Lonza Group AG to acquire all outstanding Patheon shares with or without the approval of majority shareholder JLL Patheon Holdings LLC.
Patheon has been battling a hostile takeover bid by JLL for months, saying it is inadequate. Patheon shares lost three cents to $3.
Economically speaking, Canadian industrial product and raw material prices turned lower in July, mainly due to falling petroleum prices, according to data released Friday morning by Stats Canada.
The Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI) and the Raw Materials Price Index (RMPI) declined 0.5% and 3.8% respectively in July compared with June.
July's decrease in the IPPI followed an increase of 0.5% in June. The index registered its lowest level in the past 18 months. Furthermore, it was down 7.0% from the peak reached in August 2008.
Meanwhile, Canada's overall current account deficit expanded to $11.2 billion during the second quarter of 2009, which also marked the first quarterly deficit on international trade in goods in more than 30 years, according to Stats Canada.
The Canadian dollar was off 0.47 cents, to 91.59 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 14 TSX subgroups, nine were positive to end the day and the week. Gold stocks proved the shiniest, up 1.4%, followed by telecoms, ahead 1.3% and materials stocks, advancing 1.2%.
The five laggards were weighed by financials, down 1.2%, utilities, off 0.9% and health-care stocks, down 0.6%.
The TSX Venture Exchange ended the day ahead 6.47 points, to 1,188.62, while the Nasdaq Canada Index moved 1.09 points higher to 734.63.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks seesawed Friday afternoon as investors welcomed corporate news from Intel and Dell that signaled a bottom in the PC market, but mostly played it cautious after pushing the markets to 2009 highs in the previous session.
The Dow Jones Industrials lost 36.43 points Friday to 9,544.20, ending the Big Board’s win streak at eight straight sessions. Even so, the Dow was up about 40 points on the week.
The S&P 500 index tailed off 2.05 points to 1,028.93. The tech-rich Nasdaq composite index was still ahead 1.04 points to 2,028.77.
Chipmaker Intel boosted its revenue forecast for the third quarter, thanks to stronger PC demand, saying it expects sales of $8.8 billion U.S. to $9.2 billion U.S. Previously, it forecast sales of $8.1 billion U.S. to $8.9 billion U.S. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are currently forecasting sales of $8.55 billion U.S.
Although many companies reported better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter, revenue growth has been tepid with results mostly driven by cost-cutting. Intel, a Dow component, rallied 4.8%.
PC maker Dell reported weaker sales and earnings late Thursday that beat expectations, sending shares 3% higher Friday.
Apple has signed a multi-year deal with China Unicom to bring the iPhone to China, the world's largest cellphone market. The deal ends months of speculation as to which Chinese firm would enable Apple's expansion into the lucrative market. Shares were little changed.
On the economic front, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that personal income rose $3.8 billion in July, but on a nationwide level, that increase was so slight that it's considered to be practically unchanged from the prior month. This was a little bit less than the 0.1% increase that was expected by Briefing.com consensus.
The BEA revised its June figure for personal income to a decline of 1.1%.
Personal spending edged up 0.2% in July, which was higher than the 0.1% increase projected by Briefing.com consensus. That's compared to the revised decrease of 1.1% the prior month.
Consumer sentiment was revised up to 65.7 in August from an earlier reading of 63.2. Economists expected a reading of 64. In July, sentiment stood at 66.
Treasury prices reversed direction and gained ground, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.44% from Thursday’s 3.46%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil gained 25 cents to $72.80 U.S.
Gold prices picked up $12 at $959 U.S. an ounce.
