The Toronto stock market was up sharply Friday with bank stocks leading the charge after selling off earlier in the week following mixed earnings reports.
The S&P TSX Composite Index sprouted wings and flew 226.54 points, or 1.9%, to close out the week at 11,879.72. On the week, the gain was 157.65 points or 1.3%.
The financials sector was a strong advancer, following a mixed bag of quarterly earnings reports from four of the big banks this week. CIBC and National Bank handed in earnings that beat analyst forecasts while Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank missed estimates.
But all banks were higher Friday after the financial sector was hit by a wave of selling earlier in the week as investors realize that despite a couple of misses, the banks are very strong players.
On Friday, Bank of Montreal rose $1.53 to $57.82 and TD Bank gained $2.57 to $71.57.
TD Bank and Scotiabank both report earnings next week. Scotiabank was up $1.48 to $51.99.
The base metals sector was up as September copper on the New York Mercantile Exchange was ahead seven cents at $3.37 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources was up $1.58 at $35.14 and Equinox Minerals climbed 22 cents to $4.66.
In the oil patch, Canadian Natural Resources rose $1.62 to $34.58 while Suncor Energy was up 61 cents at $32.76.
Kinross Gold Corp. advanced 38 cents to $17.36.
In other corporate news, shares in Research In Motion Ltd. fell $1.10 to $48.35 as efforts by the BlackBerry maker to broaden the debate over data encryption appear unlikely to break a logjam over Indian government demands for access to users’ emails by an Aug. 31 deadline.
India has threatened to cut off BlackBerry services for about one million Indian users if RIM does not find a way for security agencies to monitor encrypted data.
Com Dev International warned Thursday that the latest quarter will produce a loss instead of an expected profit and its 2010 annual revenue will be lower than last year’s, rather than modestly higher. However, its shares were ahead 14 cents at $1.80.
The Canadian dollar regained 0.33 cents to 94.99 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All 14 TSX subgroups were positive on the day, global base metals most so, skyrocketing 3.4%. Meanwhile, financials were not far behind, picking up 3.1% and metals and mining issues were airborne 3%.
The TSX Venture Exchange moved upward 19.93 points to 1,488.85, while the Nasdaq Canada index was still negative, however, by 1.42 points to 571.95. The Venture Exchange weekly hike was 9.23 points or 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, folks acknowledged that the economy is slowing, the Fed is cautious about the recovery and the world's biggest chipmaker is lowering its sales forecast. But stocks rallied more than 1% Friday.
The Dow Jones industrial average surged 164.84 points, or 1.7%, to close out a turbulent week at 10,150.65. On the week, the big board was still down, though, by 62.97 points or 0.6%.
The S&P 500 index strode up 17.37 points to 1,064.59, to soften a weekly loss to 7.10 points or 0.7%.
The tech-rich Nasdaq composite index gained 34.94 points to 2,153.63. The Nasdaq fell, too, however, on the week, by 26.13 points or 1.2%.
Intel issued a revenue warning, saying that its third-quarter sales will fall below the company's previous expectations. Shares in what’s known colloquially as "Mr. Chips", which were halted for 15 minutes Friday, gained more than 1% after they resumed trading.
The bidding war for 3PAR continued Friday, as Dell increased its offer for the storage company to match HP's bid made Thursday, at $27 U.S. per share. 3PAR accepted Dell's offer, but HP upped its bid again early Friday, topping Dell's latest offer.
Shares of 3PAR jumped 23%, while Dell's stock rose nearly 3%. Shares of HP fell about 1%.
On the economic front, the U.S. government revised its reading of second-quarter gross domestic product to 1.6%. That was down from the previously reported 2.4%, but still topped expectations.
Economists surveyed by Briefing.com were expecting economic activity to slow to 1.4%.
Separately, the Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment for August is expected to have risen slightly to 70, from 69.6 in July.
At an annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Bernanke said the economic recovery is "less vigorous" than expected but emphasized that the Federal Reserve will be able to support growth.
Treasury prices fell sharply, raising yields for the benchmark 10-year note to 2.65% from Thursday’s 2.50%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil moved up $2.10 to $75.46 U.S.
Gold prices moved forward two dollars to $1,239 U.S. an ounce.
