The Toronto stock market was slightly lower Thursday amid major announcements from the oilpatch, earnings disappointments and uncertainty about the U.S. Federal Reserve's next move.
The S&P/TSX composite index fell 94.07 points to close at 13,361.26
The Canadian dollar regained 0.46 cents to 95.92 cents U.S.
Bombardier Inc. was a major drag, down 53 cents, or 10%, to $4.75 on very heavy volume of 20.7 million shares, as the transport giant missed on earnings and revenue. It posted adjusted net income of $165 million or nine cents per share, which was one cent below estimates. Revenue of $4.1 billion also missed analyst estimates.
Suncor Energy Inc. announced Wednesday after the close that the Fort Hills oilsands project will go ahead with its cost estimated at $13.5 billion. The cost will be shared between Canada's largest energy company and partners Total E&P Canada Ltd. and Teck Resources Ltd.
Suncor also said it recorded net earnings of $1.69 billion, or $1.13 per common share, for the third quarter, compared with $1.54 billion, or $1.01 per common share a year ago. Suncor stock moved up six cents to $38.05 while Teck fell $1.40, or 4.8%, to $27.91.
The gold sector was the biggest sector decliner, as Goldcorp fell $1.08 to $26.55.
Barrick Gold Corp. is cutting its capital spending budget by a further $1 billion U.S. next year as a result of suspending construction at its troubled Pascua-Lama project which straddles the Argentina-Chile border.
At the same time, the miner handed in adjusted earnings of 58 cents per share, down from last year but seven cents better than estimates. Its shares were $1.27, or 5.9%, lower to $20.28.
Techs were also a drag as business software company Open Text Corp. fell $2.92, or 3.7%, to $76.33 even as the company more than doubled its quarterly profits to $30.6 million, or 52 cents per share.
The base metals sector was down as December copper lost two cents to $3.31 U.S. a pound. HudBay Minerals dropped 16 cents to $8.52.
Financials led advancers, and contributing to a jump of almost 7% during October with markets feeling a lot more comfortable that the Canadian housing sector isn't coming in for a hard landing.
National Bank was ahead 51 cents to $90.27 after earlier hitting a 52-week high of $90.88.
The energy sector was up, though Imperial Oil Ltd. missed expectations for earnings and revenue. Imperial had $647 million of net income, or 76 cents per share, down from $1.04 billion or $1.22 a year earlier and below the estimate of 98 cents per share and its shares dropped 43 cents to $45.52.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that the economy rose 0.3% in August, after increasing 0.6% in July and dipping 0.5% in June. Market call was for growth of 0.1%. An increase in oil and gas extraction and widespread gains in service industries were the main contributors to the August growth.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 5.49 points to 958.68
ON WALLSTREET
Investors clocked big wins for the month of October but didn't add to their gains on the last trading day.
Stocks fell modestly Thursday, one day after the Federal Reserve said that it will do exactly what the market wanted. The Fed will keep buying $85 billion a month in bonds.
The Dow Jones Industrials ended the day down 73.01 points, to end the month at 15,545.80
The S&P 500 index lost six points to 1,757.31. The NASDAQ dropped 10.91 points to 3,919.71
Still, the S&P 500 has rallied nearly 5% this month, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has run up more than 3%. The Dow and S&P are also still hovering near all-time highs.
Facebook faked out investors Wednesday night. The social media site's stock spiked 15% after hours when it announced that earnings and revenues easily beat forecasts thanks to strong mobile growth.
But investors became spooked when the company said during its conference call that the number of teen users who were visiting the social networking site on a daily basis had fallen.
Facebook's stock fell in early morning trading but reversed course again and closed up more than 2%, as some analysts downplayed the fears that teens weren't as active on the site.
China's equivalent of Craigslist, 58.com, debuted Thursday, and shares closed up more than 40%.
Expedia's stock jumped more than 18% on better-than-expected earnings. Meanwhile, Priceline's stock dipped. Shares of Priceline have been extremely hot this year, recently surging above the $1,000 U.S. mark.
Shares of Avon dropped 25% due to disastrous quarterly results and a warning from the makeup retailer that it might have to pay a larger-than-expected fine to the SEC to settle a bribery probe.
Exxon Mobil reported a sharp drop in profits but the oil company's shares still rallied Thursday
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury dipped, raising yields to 2.54% from Wednesday’s 2.53%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slipped 43 cents to $96.34 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices fell $24.80 to $1,324.50 U.S. an ounce.
