The Toronto stock market was flat late morning Friday as oil prices continued to hover around 15-month highs and traders took in earnings from American banking giants JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo that beat expectations.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 31.09 points to end Friday at 12,462.17.
The Canadian dollar faded 0.28 cents to 96.20 cents U.S.
In the financial sector, Scotiabank said Friday that it has withdrawn its application to acquire a 19.99% stake in China's Bank of Guangzhou.
Scotiabank shares rose 11 cents to $57.05.
Industrials advanced, as railway stocks moved forward despite a warning from credit rating agency Moody's that it expects the deadly train disaster in Lac-Megantic, Que., to make shipping oil by rail more costly, putting pressure on both major railways and oil producers.
Canadian National Railways rose 92 cents to $104.93 while Canadian Pacific was $2.18 higher at $131.73.
The telecom group rose as BCE Inc. climbed 29 cents to $43.82.
The gold sector declined as Barrick Gold Corp. faded 36 cents to $15.49 and Kinross Gold Corp. gave back 10 cents to $5.04.
The base metals sector was down with copper prices depressed after China's finance minister suggested that growth could come in at 7% for this year, which is below the government's official forecast.
China releases April-June growth figures on Monday morning and that could well determine trading next week.
The September copper contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange lost two cents to $3.15 U.S. a pound and Teck Resources declined 46 cents to $22.85 while HudBay Minerals slipped 16 cents to $6.83.
The energy sector drifted lower as Suncor Energy gave back 53 cents to $32.44.
In other corporate news, vaccine developer Medicago Inc. is selling a majority stake to Japan's Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma in a friendly transaction valued at $357 million. Mitsubishi Tanabe will pay $1.16 in cash for each of the company's outstanding shares other than those indirectly held by Philip Morris International. That's a 22.1% premium to Thursday's closing price.
Paper company Domtar Corp. says it expects to post an operating loss of between $30 million and $35 million U.S. when it reports its second-quarter results later this month. Its shares fell $1.66 to $74.59.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 4.51 points to 898.42
All but four of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower on the day. Gold dulled 2.3%, while metals and mining stocks lost 1.7% of their strength, global base metals forfeited 1.6% of theirs.
The four gainers were led by industrials, up 0.5%, while telecoms and health-care stocks each climbed 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Boeing pushed U.S. stocks into the red Friday afternoon following news that a parked, unoccupied Dreamliner caught fire at London's Heathrow airport.
Shares of Boeing plunged more that 6% and were the biggest losers in the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500.
The Dow pulled slightly out of its funk and added 3.38 points from Thursday’s all-time record to 15,464.30
The S&P 500 index recovered 4.94 points to 1,679.96, another all-time high. The NASDAQ Composite boosted 21.78 points to 3,600.08
JPMorgan Chase reported quarterly earnings that beat expectations, while revenue just barely beat forecasts. But the stock was only slightly higher as some of the profit gains came from accounting adjustments rather than strong growth in the underlying business.
Wells Fargo shares rose 2% after the bank reported earnings and revenue that beat expectations.
Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are on tap to report results next week.
Package delivery giant UPS lowered its outlook for profit growth this year, sending shares down more than 5%.
The company, considered an economic bellwether along with rival FedEx, said "a slowing U.S. industrial economy drove revenue and operating profit below expectations."
Shares of FedEx also moved lower.
Also on the corporate front, Shares of WebMD surged nearly 26% after the health information company announced preliminary results that showed better-than-expected earnings and revenue.
In economic news, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly report on the producer price index, showing an increase of 0.8% in June. That's nearly triple the expected increase of 0.3%. The gains were largely driven by a spike in gasoline prices.
The University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters' Consumer Sentiment Index for July declined slightly, and fell short of expectations.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury sagged, boosting yields to 2.60% from Thursday’s 2.57%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices added $1.17 to $106.08 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained four dollars to $1,283.90 U.S. an ounce.
