The Toronto stock market drifted lower Monday while stock in BlackBerry plunged after the smartphone maker dropped a bombshell.
Fairfax Financial is no longer offering to buy BlackBerry outright. Instead, Fairfax is leading a group that will provide the smartphone company with at least $1 billion U.S. and up to $1.25 billion U.S. of convertible debt.
The S&P/TSX composite index dipped 23.03 points to greet noon at 13,314.43
The Canadian dollar nicked up 0.03 cents to 96.01 cents U.S.
Thorsten Heins will be replaced as BlackBerry CEO on an interim basis by John Chen, who will also be the chairman of the BlackBerry board of directors. BlackBerry shares tumbled 13.9% to $6.97 on the TSX, its lowest level in a decade.
The gold index was up 1.5% as Goldcorp Inc. moved up 49 cents to $25.83.
The base metals sector was ahead 0.5% while December copper lost four cents to $3.26 U.S. a pound. Lundin Mining rose 18 cents to $4.79.
December crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange down and the energy sector edged up 0.1%.
In other corporate news, Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. has received Colombian environmental licences for two exploration and development blocks that are strategically important to the Toronto-based company.
One licence is for the CPE-6 heavy oil field, which is 50% owned by Talisman Energy Inc., and the other is for the Guama natural gas field, which is wholly owned by Pacifc Rubiales.
Meanwhile, investors will take in plenty of earnings reports this week including WestJet Tuesday, pipeline company Enbridge and auto parts giant Magna International on Wednesday.
Thursday is the heaviest day for earnings as traders will hear from Tim Hortons BCE, Canadian Tire, Canadian Natural Resources and insurance giants Sun Life Financial Manulife Financial and Great West Lifeco
The most important data of the week comes out Friday — October employment data for Canada and the U.S.
Economists looked for Canadian job creation to come in at a modest 10,000 with an uptick in the jobless rate from 6.9% to 7%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange stayed positive 0.77 points to 956.10
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks wavered as the clock approached noon EST on Monday, as the situation surrounding BlackBerry seemed to take centre stage.
The Dow Jones Industrials faltered 12.43 points to 15,603.10, after spending much of the morning in mildly positive territory.
The S&P 500 index gained 1.77 points to 1,763.41. The NASDAQ sifted off 8.65 points to 3,903.70
BlackBerry shares tumbled after the company said it has abandoned its plan to sell the company.
Instead, BlackBerry is receiving an investment of $1-billion U.S. from majority shareholder Fairfax Financial.
The troubled Canadian smartphone company also said that Thorsten Heins is stepping down as CEO, and that John Chen, former CEO of Sybase, will serve as interim chief. Chen was also appointed executive chair of BlackBerry's board of directors.
Shares of Gap were in the red after Goldman Sachs downgraded the retailer's stock to neutral from buy.
But shares of J.C. Penney continued to rebound following last week's 20% advance.
Twitter, which is expected to make its stock market debut later this week, raised the price range for its initial public offering to $23 to $25 U.S. per share, from a previous range of $17 to $20 U.S. The boosted price is a sign of strong demand for Twitter's IPO, and means Twitter would be valued as high as $13.6 billion U.S.
In economic news, factory orders for both August and September were below expectations.
Investors will also get their first look at U.S. gross domestic product for the third quarter. The GDP report, due out Thursday, does not include the impact that the government shutdown had on the economy.
But on Friday, the government will release the jobs report for October. That report could show softness in hiring because of uncertainty related to the shutdown and fears of a possible U.S. debt default.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained ground, lowering yields to 2.60% from Friday’s 2.62%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped 12 cents to $94.49 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $3.70 to $1,316.90 U.S. an ounce.
