Bay Street stocks were off slightly in Tuesday afternoon trading after recovering earlier losses. Strength in the energy sector offset a drop for industrial and financial stocks.
Soon before the closing bell on Tuesday, the S&P TSX Composite index had surrendered 17.41 points to 11,419.51.
Energy stocks are up after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries boosted its demand outlook. Canadian Oil Sands picked up 4.7% to $33.87, Suncor was up 3.1% to $38.78 and Canadian Natural Resources gained 3.1% to $75.26
Industrial stocks were down, as Canadian Pacific lost 2.8% to $48.52 and Canadian National Railway was down 2.4% to $52.59.
Financial stocks slipped, as Toronto-Dominion dropped 1.7% at $64.68 and Royal Bank let go of 1.6% to $55.07 and Scotiabank was down 1.7% at $46.48.
In corporate news, MDS fell 3.7% at $8.75 after the stock was downgraded to "hold" from "buy" and had its target price cut to $9 from $9.50 at Jefferies & Co.
International Road Dynamics soared nearly 24% to $1.14 after the highway traffic management technology provider reported third quarter net earnings rose to $519,070 or $0.03 per share from $188,270 or $0.01 per share in the previous year.
Breaker Energy Ltd. added 0.9% to $5.75 after the upstream oil and gas company announced it will be acquired by NAL Oil & Gas Trust for about $403 million including debt. NAL lost 0.6% to $12.46.
Ivanhoe Mines was up 0.4% to $13.05 after announcing Rio Tinto will double its stake in the company 19.7% from 9.9% in a $388-million deal.
Rogers Communications said it agreed with MSN.ca, the Microsoft owned and operated bilingual portal recently launched in Canada, to provide content. The stock was down 0.7% to $28.20.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported on Tuesday that new home prices increased 0.1% in August following a 0.3% advance in July. Economists were looking for new home prices to rise 0.2%.
The Canadian dollar skidded 0.07 cents to 96.50 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 14 TSX subgroups, nine finished the day down. Industrial proved the biggest loser at 1.9%, followed by financials, off 1.5% and real-estate stocks, 1.4% to the bad.
The five gainers were powered by energy stocks, ahead 2.3%, gold and metals and mining stocks, each up 1.2%.
The TSX Venture Exchange moved forward 14.91 points to 1,322.26, while the Nasdaq Canada index gained 3.94 points to 730.25.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks struggled Tuesday as weakness in the financial sector and disappointment about Johnson & Johnson's results halted the Dow's attempt to reclaim 10,000. Dow component Intel was expected to report quarterly results soon after the close.
The Dow Jones Industrials stepped back 14.74 points to 9,871.06. The S&P 500 index lost three points to 1,073.19. The Nasdaq composite index eked out a gain of 0.75 points to 2,139.89.
Stocks slipped at the start as traders braced for the first big wave of quarterly results this week. Gold touched a fresh record high and the dollar weakened. Treasury prices rallied, sending yields lower.
Stocks briefly turned higher in the late morning, before heading lower again.
Since bottoming at a 12-year low in March, the S&P 500 has gained nearly 59%, as of Monday's close, with any modest pullbacks being met by a new wave of buying.
With more than $3 trillion U.S. sitting in money market accounts and few better options, investors are feeling increasingly compelled to put cash into equities, said Rob Lutts, chief investment officer at Cabot Money Management.
"The common thought is that the market has run ahead of a recovery and that a correction is going to happen, but the reality is that the money has to go somewhere," he said.
"We probably are ahead of the fundamentals, but that doesn't mean we can't keep going higher," he said.
The Dow has been moving closer to 10,000, a key psychological barrier that could give stocks another leg up, or trigger a selloff. The market last closed above 10,000 a year ago, on Oct. 3, 2008.
Stocks posted tepid gains Monday on a light news day as investors got a little gun-shy after pushing the Dow and S&P 500 to fresh one-year highs. On Tuesday, the focus turned to the quarterly results period, which heats up this week.
Last week, Dow component Alcoa got the third-quarter results period underway, reporting revenue and earnings that topped estimates.
That was good news to Wall Streeters, who are looking for revenues to have grown or at least stabilized after a second quarter in which topline growth was non-existent and any earnings improvement was driven by cost cutting.
On Tuesday, Johnson & Johnson became the second Dow component to report results. The drug and medical products maker reported higher quarterly earnings that beat estimates thanks to cost cutting and a one-time tax benefit. The company also reported weaker quarterly revenue that missed expectations.
J&J boosted its 2009 earnings guidance to a range of $4.54 to $4.59 U.S. per share, versus an earlier range that topped out at $4.55 a share. Nonetheless, investors focused on the negative and shares fell 2.5%.
Other Dow gainers included Home Depot, Chevron, DuPont and Wal-Mart Stores.
Among financials, Goldman Sachs slipped 2% after Merideth Whitney Advisors downgraded it to "neutral" from "buy."
That pressured a number of other financial shares, including Dow components Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Travelers Companies.
Bank of America said it will waive attorney-client privilege and hand over legal documents related to its controversial merger with Merrill Lynch. The company has been under pressure from regulators for months to provide more information on the purchase.
CIT Group tumbled 14% after the lender's CEO said he would resign by the end of the year.
Cisco Systems said it is buying Starent Networks for $2.9 billion U.S. in cash. Starent makes gear that enables wireless carriers to tie their networks to the Internet.
Treasury prices shot up, lowering the yields for the benchmark 10-year note to 3.32%.
The price of a barrel of oil gained 88 cents to $74.19 U.S.
Gold prices picked up eight dollars to $1,065 U.S. an ounce.
