The Toronto stock market was little changed Friday at the end of a negative week after weak U.S. retail sales and consumer sentiment data provided further indications of a slowing American economy.
The S&P TSX Composite Index carved out a gain of 4.65 points Friday to close out a rough week at 11,528.55, a week in which it tumbled 271.72 points or 2.3% of its strength.
Oil prices have been moving lower all week — down 7% — and continued to weaken Friday after reports earlier this week showing slower Chinese growth in the second quarter. Canadian Natural Resources declined 40 cents to $33.49.
The base metals component was ahead amid weakening copper prices with the September contract in New York off three cents to $3.25 U.S. a pound. Taseko Mines rose 31 cents to $4.39.
Consumer stocks were supportive with Shoppers Drug Mart ahead 20 cents to $35.04.
The gold sector declined as bullion lost early headway. Goldcorp Inc. faded 65 cents to $41.35.
Industrial stocks were also higher as Canadian Pacific Railway advanced 86 cents to $59.58.
The financial sector was slightly higher but weighed down by another sharp drop in Manulife Financial shares. The stock fell 11 cents or 1.4% to $12.68. The stock has tumbled more than 20% since last week when it turned in a $2.4-billion quarterly loss, followed up by a downgrade by DBRS earlier this week.
Research In Motion Ltd. shares were also a weight, down 82 cents to $55.62. RIM’s stock is down about 6% this month as countries including India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have threatened to cut off popular BlackBerry services unless they get greater access to data.
They’ve cited security concerns in pushing to access encrypted information sent by the cellphones that gets routed through servers overseas.
Canadian uranium miner Cameco Corp. reported that net quarterly profits came in at $68 million, down from earnings of $247 million a year ago. Revenue fell to $546 million from $646 million a year ago at this time. Its shares were down 18 cents to $25.84.
Meanwhile, Shaw Communications has cleared another regulatory hurdle in its attempt to complete its purchase of Canwest’s television assets. The Competition Bureau said Friday it has given an OK to the sale of the Global TV and specialty channel operations of Canwest Global Communications Corp. to Shaw. Shaw and Canwest still need to get final approval from the CRTC.
Shaw shares gained 20 cents to $20.74.
In economic news, Statistics Canada said the number of new motor vehicle sold rose 2.5% to 130,135 units in June, largely helped by higher truck sales. Sales of trucks increased 3.2% to 72,709 units in June. For the past seven months, truck sales have surpassed passenger car sales, the agency noted.
The Canadian dollar pushed ahead 0.27 cents to 96.10 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Eight of the 14 TSX subgroups ended the day higher. Consumer staples were ahead 1.1%, while consumer discretionaries and real-estate notched 1% higher each.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed by gold, off 1.2%, global base metals, trailing yesterday by 0.6%, and materials, sliding 0.5%.
The TSX Venture Exchange moved higher by 3.31 points to 1,457.05, while the Nasdaq Canada index decreased 6.88 points to 619.93.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, equities ended lower Friday, the fourth consecutive day of declines, as investors digested dour economic reports in the retail and consumer sectors.
The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 16.80 points on the day to 10,303.15. Over the week, the decrease was 350.45 points or 3.4%.
The S&P 500 index moved lower 4.36 points to 1,079.25. On the week, that market experienced a dip of 42.39 or 3.9%. The tech-rich Nasdaq composite index dropped 16.79 points Friday to 2,173.48, for a weekly tumble of 114.99 points or 5.1%.
Retail shares felt an extra blow when several companies released disappointing reports.
JCPenney was down almost 4% after it forecast a full-year profit below Wall Street expectations.
Nordstrom was still off more than 6% after its late-Thursday earnings report showed higher inventories.
IBM said it will purchase software firm Unica for $480 million U.S., offering a whopping 120% premium for the marketing analytics company.
General Motors is expected to announce a stock offering as early as Friday to bring the company public again -- a day after the automaker said that it is getting its fourth CEO in just under 18 months.
Dell was accused of refusing to comply with court orders to reveal secret documents in an ongoing dispute with client Advanced Internet Technologies over allegedly faulty computers.
Supermarket company A&P said it will close 25 stores in five states.
On the economic front, a report from the Commerce Department said that July retail sales rose 0.4%, slightly less than expected. Economists polled by Briefing.com expected a 0.5% increase.
The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for early August edged up to 69.6 from 67.8 the previous month, just missing expectations.
The U.S. Labor Department's July Consumer Price Index, a key measure of inflation, snapped a three-month streak of declines and ticked up 0.3%. This was higher than the 0.2% gain economists expected.
A report released later in the morning showed business inventories ticked up 0.3% in June.
Treasury prices eked ahead, lowering yields for the benchmark 10-year note to 2.69% from Thursday’s 2.74%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil surrendered 22 cents to $75.52 U.S.
Gold prices were flat at $1,217 U.S. an ounce.
