Bay Street stocks remained modestly higher in Tuesday afternoon trading, erasing morning losses. Mild gains in the mining and financial sectors have led the way.
The S&P/TSX Composite index tacked on 73.26 points to 11,627.98.
Mining stocks improved, as Inmet added 3.5% to $64.02, HudBay up 1.9% to $12.80 and Teck Resources gained 0.7% to $39.77.
The key Financial Index surged, although National Bank dropped 2.8% at $60.07 after the company said that its securities dealer subsidiary, National Bank Financial, has agreed to pay $75 million for the settlement with the Autorite des marches financiers.
Scotiabank added 1.2% at $48.73 as the company said it received a license to open a precious metals unit in Dubai.
In other corporate news, NovaGold Resources added 6.6% to $5.99 after the company announced that it has agreed to purchase a 100% interest in the Ambler property in northern Alaska.
SNC-Lavalin Group gained 2.5% to $52.82 after it announced the acquisition of Marte Engenharia, a Brazilian engineering firm with about 1,000 employees.
In corporate news, Yamana Gold picked up 2.1% at $12.17 after the company said that it increased its revolving credit facility capacity to $680 million U.S. from $500 million U.S.
Iamgold added a penny at $16.07 after the stock was upgraded to "buy" from "neutral" at UBS.
Orleans Energy slid 3% to $2.29 after the stock was downgraded to "outperform" from "top pick" at Royal Bank of Canada.
Bankers Petroleum said it will increase its 2010 production by 15% to 15,000 barrels per day. The stock was down 4.8% to $6.18.
Meanwhile, Imax was off 0.4% to $13.54 after being downgraded to "hold" from "buy" at Morgan Joseph.
On the economic front, the number of people on Employment Insurance benefits fell 0.5% to 809,600 in October, according to Statistics Canada.
Canadian GDP data is due tomorrow.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.40 cents to 94.53 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but one of the 14 TSX subgroups ended the day upward, led by global base metals, up 1%, while real-estate and financials were ahead 0.9% each.
The lone losing group was information technology, down 0.5%.
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 6.20 points to 1,421.97, while the Nasdaq Canada index tailed off 15.98 points to 724.43.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks rose Tuesday, with the Dow and S&P 500 hovering just below 14-month highs, after two economic reports continued to fuel optimism about the economy in a thin trading session.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 50.79 points to 10,464.93, while the broader S&P 500 gained 3.97 points to 1,118.02, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 11.78 points to 2,252.67, to close at its highest level since September 2008.
Stocks opened on an upbeat note after a government report showed the economy grew in the third quarter but at a more tepid pace than forecast. The advance gained steam after an industry report showed sales of existing homes rose in November to the highest level in three years.
But the market settled into a narrow range during the afternoon amid a lack of market moving news.
Wall Street has been in a holding pattern recently as investors look to protect gains accumulated over the last several months. The market has rallied broadly since March as a flood of government stimuli has helped the economy emerge from one of the deepest recessions on record.
For the year, the major indexes are all on track to post double-digit percentage gains. The Dow has gained nearly 19% so far this year, while the S&P 500 is up about 23% year-to-date. The Nasdaq has been the best performer of the year, climbing about 42%.
Analysts said the tone should remain subdued for the rest of the holiday-shortened week. The stock market will close early Thursday and remain dark Friday for the Christmas holiday.
Still, the lack of participation could make for some volatile moves, since low trading volumes tend to exaggerate swings in the market.
Boeing rose 1.4% after the plane maker increased its stake in Global Aeronautical LLC to bring more of the 787 Dreamliner's operations under its direct control.
Ford Motor announced Monday that it is offering buyouts and early retirement to its 41,000 U.S. factory workers. The car maker is looking to cut payroll costs in its effort to return to profitability by 2011
Economically speaking, the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes rose 7.4% in November to an annual rate of 6.54 million units. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected the annual sales rate to rise to 6.25 million units.
The gain in existing home sales was driven largely by an $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers.
Elsewhere, the Commerce Department on Tuesday released its final revision of third-quarter gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity. The government said that GDP rose 2.2% in the three months ended in September.
That was less than the 2.7% gain projected by economists surveyed by Briefing.com. The final GDP figure was also below the 3.5% growth rate the government first reported in October.
Nonetheless, it was still a marked improvement over the previous four quarters in which economic activity shrank.
Treasury prices dipped sharply, boosting yields on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.75% from Monday’s 3.68%. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil ended the day ahead 32 cents to $74.04 U.S.
Gold prices subsided nine dollars to $1,087 an ounce U.S.
