The Toronto stock market was higher Monday amid rising commodity prices and ahead of a busy earnings week for Canadian corporations.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index reached noon up 66.16 points to 12,751.29
The Canadian dollar gained 0.33 cents to 96.81 cents U.S.
In Canada, traders will take in earnings from Canadian National Railway after the close while Canadian Pacific reports Wednesday.
Traders expect both railways to post strong results despite a slowdown in June volume for grain and coal carloads in Canada. At the same time, both railways have benefited from higher shipments of crude oil.
But they could be faced with more stringent regulations about moving crude following the rail disaster at Lac-Megantic, Que., that claimed almost 50 lives.
Analysts expect CN to post earnings per share of $1.63, up from $1.44 a year earlier. CN is expected to report that earnings ex-items came in at $1.62, up from $1.50 a year ago.
Revenue is expected to come in at $2.7 billion, rising from $2.54 billion a year ago. In early trading, CN shares added 35 cents to $105.90.
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The gold sector advanced, as Barrick Gold Corp. ran up 97 cents to $18.13 while Goldcorp Inc. improved by $1.29 to $29.63.
The base metals sector was ahead while September copper was up five cents to $3.19 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources gained 34 cents to $23.82.
Teck is the biggest Canadian mining company to report this week and analysts forecast the Vancouver-based company will post adjusted earnings of 33 cents a share on Thursday, down from 53 cents a year ago.
But prices have jumped about 12% this month, underpinned by three weeks of declining U.S. stockpiles. Rising prices have lifted TSX energy stocks and the sector has gained more than 5% this month. Cenovus Energy, which reports earnings Wednesday, climbed 32 cents to $32.57.
The tech sector was the biggest decliner, but losses were confined to CGI Group, which was down $1 at $29.72.
The TSX ran up 223 points or 1.8% last week, leaving the main index up 2% for the year to date. U.S. markets also gained ground for a fourth week, leaving the Dow industrials up about 19% year to date.
In other resource sector earnings, gold miner Agnico-Eagle Mines and gas giant Encana report on Wednesday, while Husky Energy will post its results Thursday.
Outside of the resource sectors, grocer Loblaw Cos. Ltd. reports results Wednesday.
In other corporate news, Intact Financial Corp. says several recent Canadian disasters, including flooding in Alberta, the Lac-Megantic train derailment and a heavy rain storm in the Toronto area, will result in more than $270 million of losses in its second and third quarter.
The Toronto-based company is one of Canada's largest property insurers. Its shares gained 72 cents to $58.25.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 6.41 points to 926.80
Eight of the 14 Toronto subgroups were ahead of the game at noon hour, led by gold, up 6.9%, materials, ahead 3.8%, and the metals and mining group, gaining 1.7%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed by telecoms, down 1.2%, information technology, down 0.9% and real-estate, fading 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Investors were taking a wait-and-see approach early Monday as the corporate earnings season gets underway in earnest this week.
The Dow Jones Industrials inched forward 16.98 points to pause for lunch at 15,560.30
The S&P 500 index recovered 3.31 points to 1,695.40. The NASDAQ moved higher 11.85 points to 3,591.48
McDonald's was the main drag, falling 2.5% after the restaurant operator reported disappointing earnings and sales.
Nearly 160 companies in the S&P 500 are slated to report quarterly results this week. Among the Dow components set to report this week are AT&T, Boeing and 3M.
While investors were hitting the pause button Monday, stocks have had quite a year. All three indexes are up roughly 19%, and both the Dow and S&P 500 hit new record highs last week.
While it's still early, the second-quarter earnings have come in better than many had feared.
Of the 104 companies that reported results through Friday, 66% have beat analysts' expectations, according to S&P Capital IQ.
Much of that performance was driven by the financial services sector, which benefited from robust capital market activity in the second quarter.
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.
This week, a number of big technology companies are slated to report, including Apple, Facebook and Amazon.
Following disappointing results from Google and Microsoft last week, investors are eager to see how other tech companies have fared. Apple, which can have an out-sized impact on the broader market, is expected to report a sharp drop in profits.
On the economic front, existing home sales fell by 1.2% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.08 million in June but remain near a 3-1/2-year high. Economists had expected a rise of 1.4%.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury were down, lowering yields to 2.48% from Friday’s 2.49%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices docked 88 cents to $107.17 U.S. a barrel.
Gold surged $38.60 to $1,331.50 U.S. an ounce.
