The Toronto stock market was slightly higher Wednesday as traders anticipate the announcement of stimulus measures to help the euro-zone recovery and look to American employment numbers coming out at the end of the week.
The S&P/TSX composite index recovered 33.51 points to greet noon ET Wednesday at 14,768.20
The Canadian dollar lopped off 0.29 cents to 91.39 cents U.S.
The information technology sector advanced, as BlackBerry ran up 27 cents to $8.42
The gold sector was ahead as Barrick Gold added eight cents to $17.52
The base metals segment declined, while July copper fell four cents to $3.10 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources subsided 39 cents to $23.80.
The energy sector was flat while Imperial Oil shed eight cents to $53.95.
On the corporate front, Laurentian Bank of Canada shares edged up 56 cents to $48.14 as the bank posted a lower second-quarter profit of $31 million or 99 cents a share, compared with a profit of $33.8 million or $1.05 per share in the same quarter a year ago.
But adjusted profit came in at $1.29 a share, five cents ahead of estimates. Laurentian also upped its quarterly dividend by a penny to 52 cents per share.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported this morning that our merchandise exports declined 1.8% with imports hiking 1.4% in April. As a result, Canada's trade balance with the world went from a surplus of $766 million in March to a deficit of $638 million in April.
The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1%. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1.25% and the deposit rate is 0.75%
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 1.42 points to 980.60.
All but four of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher by midday, led by information technology, up n1.2%, gold, surging 0.8%, and consumer discretionary stocks, gaining 0.6%.
The four laggards were weighed mostly by health-care and the metals and mining sectors, each down 0.6%, while real-estate slipped 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Equity markets in the U.S. were little changed by noon Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average forged ahead 4.26 points to 16,726.60
The S&P 500 picked up 2.78 points to 1,927.02, and the NASDAQ composite index gained 16.89 points to 4,250.97
On the earnings front, Brown-Forman, the maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey, reported quarterly results that topped expectations. The stock was little changed but has been among the top 10% of S&P 500 companies this year.
General Motors shares gained more than 3%, extending a positive streak from the past two weeks. Investors are waiting for news on how the automaker should compensate those injured or killed in connection with a massive recall of GM cars.
Handbag and accessory maker Coach was down around 2% in morning trading and off more than 30% for the year as it struggles to remake its brand and boost sales.
Data from paycheque processor ADP showed that private sector payrolls grew by 179,000 in May, which was below the 210,000 figure that economists had predicted.
The private sector data is often seen as a preview of the government's monthly report on hiring and unemployment, which comes out Friday.
The upcoming jobs report could mark an important milestone. The U.S. economy needs to add 113,000 more jobs in order to finally recover all the jobs lost in the financial crisis.
Meanwhile, investors are also looking ahead to monetary policy announcement from the European Central Bank on Thursday.
The ECB is widely expected to cut interest rates, and could announce other stimulus measures, to prevent low inflation from derailing the fitful euro-zone economic recovery.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries slid, raising yields to 2.61% from Tuesday’s 2.59%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions
Oil prices gained 12 cents to $102.78 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices were flat at $1,244.50 U.S. an ounce.
