Canadian stocks were little changed in Monday afternoon trading, remaining near a 10-day low.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell back 21.17 points on the day to 11,489.63.
Gold stocks dropped and materials stocks were also down 1.5% as the precious metal has dropped again on the Comex. Iamgold dropped 4.1%, Goldcorp lost 2.8% and Eldorado was down 2.7%.
Industrials have gained 1.4%. Canadian Pacific dropped 2.1%, while Canadian National Railway was up 1.75%.
Consumer discretionary stocks are up, as Corus Entertainment Group added 3%, Shaw Communications Inc. gained 2.3% and Sears Canada gained 1.8%.
In corporate news, Rogers Communications added 1.9% as the company, on Friday, said it would use the slogan "Canada's reliable network" after a court ruled it could not call itself the most reliable.
Research in Motion climbed 2.5% after the company reportedly has formed a partnership with Digital China to distribute the Blackberry.
CF Industries Holdings sweetened its hostile takeover offer to acquire rival Terra Industries by $4.75 per share to $36.75 per share. Agrium is attempting to acquire CF
In other corporate news, Thompson Creek Metals Company added 0.2% after the company said that it expects capital expenditures to be $298 million U.S. in 2010.
International Royalty Corp. soared nearly 50% after Franco-Nevada Corporation it will make an offer to acquire for the company for $6.75 cash per share or about $600 million U.S. Franco-Nevada shares were down 6.2%.
AEterna Zentaris plunged 17.1% after the company reported the Phase 3 results for its enlarged prostate treatment did not meet its primary endpoint.
International Sovereign Energy and Palliser Oil & Gas Corporation, a private Alberta based oil and natural gas exploration company, said they entered into a letter of intent to combine the two companies.
Economically speaking, Statistics Canada reported the value of building permits jumped 18.0% to $6.1 billion in October from $5.2 billion in September. Economists had been expecting a much more modest increase in the value of permits of about 1.1%.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.52 cents to 95.04 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
The 14 TSX subgroups were evenly split between gainers and losers. Telecoms led the winners with a gain of 1.3%, consumer discretionary stocks picked up 1.2% and industrials improved 1.1%.
The seven sliding groups were led downward by metals and mining stocks, off 2%, gold, down 1.9%, and energy stocks, trailing Friday’s finish by 1.2%.
The TSX Venture Exchange skidded 16.06 to 1,434.40, while the Nasdaq Canada index was up 11.65 points to 671.38.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks were mixed late Monday at the end of a choppy session impacted by a strong dollar, falling oil and gold prices and comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke that cooled worries about higher interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrials eked out a gain of 1.21 points to finish up at 10,390.11, while the S&P 500 faded 2.73 points to 1,103.25, while the Nasdaq gave back 4.74 points to 2,189.61.
Stocks gained Friday at the end of a bumpy session following a better-than-expected November jobs report. The report showed employers cut just 11,000 jobs from their payrolls, the smallest amount since the start of the recession in December 2007. The report also showed the unemployment rate fell to 10% from a 26-year high of 10.2% in October.
The report was another strong sign that the economy had turned a corner, but it also raised questions about whether the Federal Reserve will need to raise interest rates faster than has been expected. If the economy is improving at a faster pace than expected, long-term inflation threats could come into play.
Such concerns kept the market churning Monday morning, sending the dollar higher and dollar-traded commodities lower as investors eschewed riskier assets.
But in the afternoon, Bernanke seemed to downplay the likelihood of a rate hike, saying in a speech at the Economic Club of Washington that it is too soon to say whether the slowly-germinating recovery will last. The Fed has kept short-term interest rates at historic lows near zero for a year and is expected to continue to do so to support the recovery.
Bernanke also said that the central bank will make money on the trillions it has pumped into the economy over the last two years.
The Obama administration is expected to cut the cost of the bank bailout plan by almost 60%, in a move that could help trim the ballooning deficit.
The White House is expected to announce in coming days that it will slash the cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) by $200 billion U.S., bringing the long-term cost to $141 billion U.S.
The money not used for the TARP could be used toward creating a new national jobs program or for paying down the deficit.
Treasury prices gained ground, lowering yields to 3.43% from Friday’s 3.47%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil lost $1.54 to 74.01 cents U.S.
Gold prices skidded $6 to $1,164 an ounce U.S.
