Equity markets in Toronto opened higher on Monday, buoyed by rising commodities as U.S. oil prices extended gains and gold found some traction
The S&P/TSX Composite Index started the day higher by 59.13 points to 12,744.20
The Canadian dollar gained 0.05 cents to 96.53 cents U.S.
Zambia has allowed First Quantum Minerals to restart construction of its Sentinel copper project that had been halted this year on environmental concerns, according to a document obtained by Reuters. First Quantum started the day up 11 cents to $16.06.
Intact Financial Corp. said a train crash in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, and hail storms in July will cost it $134 million in its third-quarter results. Intact shares plummeted 56 cents, or nearly 1%, to $56.97.
Canaccord Genuity cut the rating on ARC Resources Ltd. to hold from buy, expecting second-quarter production to slightly decline quarter over quarter given downtime associated with spring breakup and planned maintenance activities. ARC shares gave back 16 to $27.51
Canaccord Genuity cut the rating on Peyto Exploration & Development Corp. to hold from buy, believing second-quarter results will be fairly uneventful given the limited operational newsflow expected by August 13.
The rating agency also does not envision any changes to Peyto's current 2013 production or capital spending guidance within its second-quarter earnings release. Peyto shares dipped 37 cents to $29.96.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 4.46 points to 924.85
All but four of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher, led by gold, up 4.2%, materials, soaring 2.6%, and metals and mining, up 1.1%.
The four laggards were weighed mostly by information technology and telecom shares, each down 0.6%, and health-care, suffering 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks were little changed at the opening bell Monday as investors brace for this week's deluge of earnings announcements.
The Dow Jones Industrials ducked down 3.98 points to begin the week at 15,539.80
The S&P 500 index inched lower 0.22 points to 1,691.87. The NASDAQ moved higher 3.87 points to 3,591.48
McDonald's reported earnings and sales that fell short of forecasts. Same-store sales, a key metric of economic health, rose 1%.
Halliburton reported an increase in quarterly profit and a revenue record, driven in part by drilling in Angola, Russia and the North Sea.
Kimberly-Clark, producer of Kleenex, Huggies, Kotex, Depends and Scott products, reported an increase in quarterly profit but sales were flat.
Six Flags shares fell after the amusement park operator said earnings slumped 26% in the second quarter. The company is also struggling with the fallout from a fatal roller coaster accident over the weekend.
Netflix's report is due after the close.
Several major tech companies will report quarterly results later this week, including Apple, Facebook and Amazon
The financial performance of these companies always garners a lot of attention.
But investors are even more keenly awaiting them this time, since they come on the heels of poor earnings from Google and Microsoft
In other corporate news, Yahoo! announced that it will repurchase 40 million Yahoo! shares from long-time backer Third Point Capital. The hedge fund, run by activist investor Dan Loeb, will retain a small stake.
UBS agreed to pay about $745 million U.S. to settle a case with the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency over improperly selling mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the United States.
Shares of mining companies were higher as the price of gold rose (see below)
Barrick Gold, Newmont Mining, Kinross Gold all gained about 4%.
In economic news, the National Association of Realtors will publish data on existing home sales at 10 a.m. ET.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury were flat, keeping yields at Friday’s 2.49%.
Oil prices docked five cents to $108 U.S. a barrel.
Gold surged $27.60 to $1,320.50 U.S. an ounce.
