Toronto stock markets barely moved at the opening on Monday, struggling to keep the momentum going from Friday’s favourable job figures on both sides of the border.
The S&P/TSX composite index eked higher 1.30 points to begin the week at 13,379.43
The Canadian dollar gained 0.07 cents at 95.45 cents U.S.
Mitel Networks, a provider of internet phone and video-conferencing services, said it would buy smaller rival Aastra Technologies Ltd for $392 million to expand its customer base. Mitel shares inched up three cents to $7.11
Brookfield Asset Management announced it is ramping up its investment focus on emerging markets such as Brazil, India, and China, as it expects a recent flight to capital from those countries to produce bargains, the company's CEO said On Friday. Brookfield shares took on 29 cents to $41.21.
Sears Canada said it would sell its 50% stake in eight Canadian properties for about $315 million, as the struggling department store chain continues to offload real estate in the country. Sears shares began the day up a dollar, or 6.3%, to $17.00.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange subsided 1.59 points to 935.82
The 10 TSX subgroups were evenly divided between gainers and losers, information technology leading the former group, up 0.6%, while industrials prospered 0.4% and consumer discretionaries gained 0.2%.
The five laggards were weighed mostly by materials, down 0.5%, utilities, off 0.3%, and consumer staples, down 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Investors were taking a breather Monday after driving the Dow Jones industrial average to a new record high last week.
The Dow Jones Industrials moved forward 21.07 points from Friday’s all-time high finish, to begin Monday at 15,782.80
The S&P 500 index hiked 2.48 points to 1,773.09. The NASDAQ slipped 5.70 points to 3,913.53
Both the Dow and S&P 500 are up more than 20% so far this year, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ is up nearly 30%. But there are concerns about how long the big market run up will last.
With no major corporate results or economic reports on the schedule, and the Treasury market closed for the Veterans Day holiday, stock market trading could be subdued.
Amazon.com shares were lower after the e-commerce giant announced a deal with the U.S. Postal Service to deliver seven days a week. The service will initially launch only in New York and Los Angeles, but is expected to expand to Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix in 2014.
Transocean gained ground after the company forged a deal with activist investor Carl Icahn to pay out a dividend of $3 U.S. per share.
Shares of Twitter continued to slide Monday. After a 73% pop in its first day of trading Thursday, Twitter fell 7% Friday and was down another 5% Monday. The stock dipped below $40 U.S. a share.
Bond markets, as mentioned, are closed for Veterans Day.
Oil prices ducked back $1.70 to $94.52 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices drooped $1.70 to $1,282.90 U.S. an ounce.
