The Toronto stock market was little changed Thursday as traders waded through a heavy slate of Canadian earnings news.
The S&P/TSX composite index greeted noon hour down 20.97 points to 13,359.84
The Canadian dollar shed 0.25 cents at 95.73 cents U.S.
BCE Inc. adjusted net earnings in the third quarter rose by 7% to $584 million, which amounted to 75 cents per share, which was two cents below estimates.
And BCE's revenue rose 2.3% from a year earlier to just under $5.1 billion, slightly below estimates of $5.16 billion and its shares lost 19 cents to $45.31.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. is hiking its quarterly dividend by 60% to 20 cents a share. It also expects to increase annual cash flow by 14 per cent in 2014 to $8.7 billion as production output grows by seven per cent over this year's level.
Cash flow from operations rose to $2.4 billion or $2.26 per share in the third quarter, beating estimates of $2.17 a share, and its shares gained 32 cents to $32.81.
Tim Hortons Inc. posted net income of $113.9 million or 75 cents per share in the third quarter, both up from the same time last year but short of analyst estimates. The restaurant operator's revenues also grew, rising by 2.9% to $825.3 million.
Analysts were looking for 78 cents per share of net income, 77 cents per share of adjusted earnings and $824.5 million of revenue and its shares were off 11 cents to $62.49.
And insurer Manulife Financial said that its core earnings for the quarter were $704 million, up sharply from $570 million a year earlier. Net income came in at $1.034 billion, compared with a net loss of $211 million a year ago and its shares climbed 48 cents to $19.19 after hitting a new 52-week high of $19.21.
After the close Wednesday, Sun Life Financial Inc. reported a quarterly loss of $520 million or 84 cents a share as it wrote down and closed the sale of its U.S. annuity business. That compared with a profit of $383 million, or 64 cents per share, a year ago.
Ex-items, it earned an operating net profit from continuing operations of $422 million or 69 cents per diluted share for the quarter, beating estimates by five cents a share. Sun Life advanced 62 cents to $36.05.
On the TSX, tech stocks led advancers with patent company Wi-Lan up four cents to $3.41.
Industrials also advanced with Bombardier ahead six cents to $4.72.
Among gold plays, Goldcorp faded 33 cents to $25.92.
The energy sector was down with Imperial Oil giving back 37 cents to $45.07.
The base metals sector was little changed with December copper up a penny at $3.24 U.S. a pound.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 4.48 points to 936.83
Of the 10 TSX subgroups, six were negative, weighed mostly by health-care, off 1.3%, while utilities and materials were each down 0.8%.
The four gainers were led by information technology, up 0.6%, telecoms, up 0.3%, and financials, up 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Many stocks were in the red Thursday, but the one that everyone had their eye on was firmly in green. Shares of Twitter surged in their debut on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Dow Jones Industrials fell 34.93 points to 15,712.
The S&P 500 index lost 7.35 points to 1,763.14. The NASDAQ dipped 38.69 points to 3,893.25
The stock began trading at $45.10, 73% above its initial public offering price of $26 U.S., shortly before 11 a.m. ET. Twitter continued to rise, climbing as high as $50.09 U.S., with more 50 million shares exchanging hands within the first half hour of trading.
Though Twitter was sharply higher, rival social media sites Facebook and LinkedIn were down 3%. The Social Media ETF, which is expected to purchase shares of Twitter for its fund, was down almost 4%.
Whole Foods was one of the biggest laggards in the S&P 500 and NASDAQ as shares sank more than 10%. The sharp drop came after organic grocer cut its earnings and sales forecasts.
Qualcomm was also weighing on the NASDAQ and S&P 500, as shares fell 4% after the company posted quarterly earnings that fell short of expectations.
Walt Disney, Groupon and Priceline.com are set to report quarterly results after the market close.
Tesla shares tumbled again following reports of yet another fire in one of its Model S electric cars.
J.C. Penney, however, jumped after the troubled retailer announced an increase in same-store sales for October.
Investors were also encouraged by a report that showed the U.S. economy perked up slightly this summer, driven largely by businesses re-stocking their shelves, a rise in consumer spending, and the ongoing housing recovery.
Gross domestic product -- the broadest measure of economic activity -- rose at a 2.8% annual rate in the third quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That marked the fastest growth in a year and was stronger than economists had anticipated.
A separate report showed initial jobless claims declined for the fourth straight week, falling by 9,000 to 336,000.
The European Central Bank said it cut a key interest rate to 0.25%, a sign of how fragile the European economic recovery is. European stock markets made modest gains in afternoon trading, keeping them near five-year highs.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained slightly, lowering yields to 2.61% from Wednesday’s 2.64%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices moved downward 51 cents to $94.29 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slumped $9.40 to $1,308.40 U.S. an ounce.
