The Toronto stock market was slightly higher Monday afternoon, held back by falling oil prices and bank stocks that continued to lose ground ahead of the release of earnings news this week from a challenging quarter.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 28.02 points to close trading at 15,200.26
The Canadian dollar was off 0.24 at 79.51 cents U.S.
Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. jumped $32.83, or 15.1%, to $250.24 after it offered $10 billion U.S. in cash for U.S. drug company Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a developer of gastrointentinal drugs. Valeant expects to achieve more than $500 million in annual cost savings for the combined company.
On the TSX, the tech sector climbed, with CGI Group ahead $3.34 or 6.4% at $55.58.
The gold sector also provided lift as Goldcorp moved up 11 cents to $27.01
The energy sector weakened as Imperial Oil took on 39 cents to $49.02
Financials were down as five of the six big Canadian banks report quarterly earnings this week. The market hears from Scotiabank next week. Scotiabank shares declined 43 cents to $65.82.
The base metals sector shed some of its strength with March copper unchanged at $2.59 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources swooned 66 cents, or 3.4%, to $18.65.
Canadian National Railway shares dropped $1.08, or 1.2%, to $86.62 with talks set to continue between the railway and Unifor, the union representing nearly 5,000 CN employees. It could be a make or break session -- the railway said Friday that it would lock out the Unifor members unless the union agreed to binding arbitration.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 2.71 points to 692.23
Eight of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower on the day, as metals and mining gave back 1.8%, while the global base metals and financial sectors each fell 1.2%
The half-dozen gainers were led by health-care stocks, soaring 5.3%, information technology, clicking 1.7%, and real-estate, up 0.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks pulled back from Friday's records to close narrowly mixed on Monday ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's remarks over the next two days.
The Dow Jones Industrials remained negative 23.60 points to 18,116.84
The S&P 500 dipped 0.64 points to 2,109.66.
The NASDAQ index turned higher five points to 4,960.97, flirting with positive territory, as Apple hit another all-time high, above $132.00 U.S. a share. The iPhone maker said Monday it will spend $1.9 billion U.S. to build two new European data centers, one in Ireland, the other in Denmark.
Boeing weighed on the Dow Jones industrial average with a decline of more than 2% after Goldman Sachs downgraded the airplane manufacturer to sell from neutral, saying the firm is the most exposed in the industry to aircraft demand risk.
Google won dismissal of a lawsuit that had accused it of forcing Android phone makers to designate Google offerings as the default applications.
Dish Network founder and chairman Charlie Ergen will return to take charge of the firm after the current CEO, Joe Clayton, retires on March 31, the company said in a press release on Monday.
In an SEC filing, Goldman Sachs revealed it had received a letter from the U.S. attorney concluding that Goldman had violated federal law in connection with the underwriting and sales of residential mortgage backed securities. Goldman said "reasonably possible" legal costs could be $3 billion U.S. more than it currently has reserved.
Major earnings reporting after the bell on Monday include Agrium, Express Scripts and Tenet Healthcare.
In economic news, existing U.S. home sales dropped 4.9% in January, their lowest level in nine months.
Yellen testifies before both houses of Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Although many interpreted last week's Fed minutes as dovish, one expert said that Yellen will likely remind markets that a June rate hike is still on the table.
Greece's left-wing government, led by Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras, was given a lifeline when the Eurogroup of euro-zone finance ministers reached a deal to extend the country's bailout by four months. To secure the financial lifeline, however, Greece must present a list of reform proposals on Monday.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries powered ahead, weighing yields to 2.06% from Friday’s 2.13%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slid $1.58 per barrel to $49.22 U.S.
Gold prices dropped $3.10 an ounce to $1,201.80 U.S.
