The Toronto stock market was little changed by Tuesday’s close, amid mixed commodities prices and relatively positive earnings reports out of the United States.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index slid 11.46 points to end trading Tuesday at 12,516.89
The Canadian dollar hiked 0.55 cents to 96.46 cents U.S.
Shares of Loblaw Cos. Ltd. pulled back a day after the company announced it planned to buy Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. for $12.4 billion in cash and stock.
The company’s stock dipped $1.53, or 3.1%, to $48.60, while Shoppers moved down 43 cents to $59.69.
Among gold plays, shares of Barrick Gold lifted 5.9% after a Chilean appeals court ruled against the world’s largest gold mining company on Monday.
The court ruled in favour of Chilean Indians who accuse Barrick of contaminating their water downstream and creating more doubts about the future of the world’s highest gold mine. Shares of the company gained 93 cents to $16.62.
Tech stocks took a dive, as MacDonald Dettwiler fell $2.68, or 3.7%, to $69.26, while BlackBerry backtracked 29 cents, or 3%, to $9.48.
Among health-care issues, Valeant Pharmaceuticals surrendered $2.78, or 2.9%, to $94.91.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that manufacturing sales hiked 0.7% to $48.6 billion in May, that figure’s second gain in five months.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange improved 14.11 points to 910.84
All but four of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower, with information technology issues suffering 1.6%, health-care stocks off 1.1%, and consumer staples sliding 0.9%.
The four gainers were led by gold, up 4.6%, materials, advancing 2%, and the metals and mining group up 1.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks fell modestly Tuesday as investors considered a batch of mixed corporate results.
The Dow Jones Industrials dropped 32.41 points to finish at 15,451.80
The S&P 500 index dipped 6.24 points to 1,676.26. The NASDAQ Composite was off 8.99 points to 3,598.50
Goldman Sachs shares fell even after the Wall Street firm said that its quarterly earnings doubled from a year earlier, with a boost from investment banking.
Coca-Cola shares slipped after the company reported a drop in profit from a year earlier due to weak European sales.
Johnson & Johnson announced a jump in quarterly sales but a decline in earnings. Yahoo will report its second-quarter results after the market close.
In other corporate news, shares of Baidu China's leading search engine, climbed after the company signed a $1.9-billion U.S. deal to acquire NetDragon, a Chinese online gaming company.
Investors are waiting for Bernanke's semi-annual testimony to Congress on monetary policy Wednesday. They will keep an eye on corporate earnings Tuesday as a number of big firms report quarterly results.
In economic news, the Consumer Price Index increased 0.5% in June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists had expected the government's key inflation measure to rise 0.3%.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained, lowering yields to 2.53% from Monday’s 2.56%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped 59 cents to $105.74 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices jumped $8.20 to $1,291.70 U.S. an ounce.
