The Toronto stock market was in the red Thursday morning after a higher U.S. dollar helped depress commodity prices and investors reacted to disappointing earnings reports.
The S&P/TSX composite index stayed negative 58.92 points to greet noon at 14,468.65
The Canadian dollar was flat at 89.40 cents U.S.
Lower gold prices are affecting major producers such as Barrick Gold, which posted adjusted earnings of 19 cents a share, a penny higher than estimates.
Revenue slipped to $2.6 billion U.S. from just under $3 billion, primarily reflecting lower sales volumes and lower gross margins and its shares slipped 53 cents to $13.81.
Goldcorp lost $44 million U.S. or five cents per share in its latest quarter compared with a profit of $5 million or a penny per share a year ago.
Revenue totaled $1.09 billion, down from $1.16 billion in the same quarter last year and its shares fell $2.30 or 9.5% to $21.74.
The base metals component fell while December copper lost six cents to $3.05 U.S. a pound.
Suncor Energy's earnings ex-items were 89 cents a share, versus the 77 cents that analysts expected. Revenue was $10.3 billion, compared to $10.4 billion a year earlier and its shares gained 27 cents to $39.12.
Elsewhere on the earnings front, Bombardier Inc. says its third-quarter revenues were up about 20% from the same time last year, rising to $4.9 billion U.S. Earnings ex-items were 12 cents a share, beating estimates of nine cents and its shares dipped 10 cents to $3.77.
Health-care issues, however, moved higher, with Catamaran shares galloping 8.3% to $51.08.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slumped 10.10 points to 770.97
The 14 Toronto subgroups were evenly split between gainers and losers. Health-care surging 2.7%, while information technology grew 0.6% and real-estate gained 0.5%.
The seven laggards were weighed by gold stocks, down 5.6%, materials, off 3.6%, and metals and mining, off 2.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks mostly edged higher on Thursday, as a strong read on third-quarter economic growth raised new questions about monetary policy, while results at Visa single-handedly put the Dow in solidly higher territory.
The Dow Jones Industrials soared 157.44 points to 17,131.75
The S&P 500 gained 5.92 points to 1,988.22. The NASDAQ index eked higher 0.28 points to 4,549.51.
Visa jumped 8.8% to $233.50 U.S. as the biggest boost to both the Dow and S&P 500 a day after it reported adjusted earnings that topped expectations, and said the mobile payment industry would be "a great driver" for business.
MasterCard also posted a better-than-expected profit, while revenue was up almost 13%. MasterCard shares added 7.1% to $81.40.
So far this reporting season, 75.5% of S&P 500 companies have exceeded profit expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data, above the long-term average of 63%.
Shares of Facebook fell 2.6%, dropping for a second straight day in the wake of its quarterly results. The social network's stock has lost 8.5% over the past two sessions.
Investors are digesting robust economic reports, a day after the Federal Reserve officially announced the conclusion of its bond-purchasing initiative.
Confirming the Fed’s optimistic view on the economy, the first reading of third-quarter Gross Domestic Product came in better than expected, expanding at a 3.5% annualized rate.
Weekly jobless claims ticked up, however, claims remain below the 300,000, pointing to an improving labour market.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries dipped, raising yields to 2.30% from Wednesday’s 2.32%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lowered $1.05 to $81.15 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices tumbled $26.70 to $1,198.20 U.S. an ounce.
