The Toronto stock market was slightly higher Tuesday afternoon, led by gains in the mining sector on rising copper prices and a solid earnings report from Teck Resources
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 34.50 points by the closing bell to 13,736.83
The Canadian dollar regained 0.84 cents to 104.54 cents U.S.
Teck Resources shares were up $2.95 or 6.1% to $51.72 after the mining giant reported a big drop in first-quarter net earnings compared with a year ago when it booked a big gain on an asset sale, but revenues and profits were both above analyst estimates.
Teck earned $461 million or 78 cents a share in the first quarter, down from a net profit of $896 million or $1.52 a share for the same period last year.
Revenues rose to nearly $2.4 billion from $1.9 billion, boosted largely by higher coal and copper prices.
The Teck results helped boost the base metals sector while the May copper contract in New York added six cents to $4.25 U.S. a pound.
Elsewhere in the sector, Quadra FNX Mining gained 62 cents to $14.17 as the company said it’s aiming to start sinking an underground shaft at the Victoria copper-nickel project in Sudbury, Ont., next year and to begin production at the new mine in 2017.
The positive showing on markets came a day after indexes in Toronto and New York fell sharply after Standard & Poor’s said it might lower its rating on U.S. government debt if Washington didn’t get control of its deficit.
Among energy plays, Canadian Natural Resources shed 24 cents to $43.22 and Talisman Energy lost 25 cents to $21.79.
Crude prices have been volatile, jumping as high as $113 U.S. last week, after surging from $84 U.S. in February partly in response to the civil war in Libya and unrest in other Mideast countries.
But analysts say there has also been a big speculative element in the sharp rise in oil prices.
The gold sector moved ahead as Goldcorp Inc. gained 46 cents to $52.26 while Kinross Gold Corp. faded 14 cents to $14.53.
Research In Motion weighed on the TSX as the BlackBerry maker’s PlayBook, the long-awaited response to Apple’s iPad, went on sale in the United States and Canada Tuesday. RIM’s shares fell $1.99 to $50.85.
Catalyst Paper says a fire Monday at its Snowflake Mill in Arizona has shut down production and destroyed about 14,000 tonnes of recovered waste paper. The company says the mill will remain closed until the extent of damage to its waste paper system is known.
Paper production is, however, expected to resume later this week. Its shares were down a penny at 25.5 cents.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada announced this morning that consumer prices rose 3.3% in the 12 months leading up to March, the largest year-over-year increase since September 2008. February’s annualized jump was 2.2%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange docked 5.20 points to 2,233.40 while the Nasdaq Canada index shed 9.50 points to 747.12
In Toronto, the 14 subgroups ended the day evenly divided between winners and losers.
The gainers were led by metals and mining stocks, up 2.1%, materials, picking up 1.4%, and global base metals, ahead 0.7%.
The laggards were weighed mostly by information technology, down 0.8%, consumer staples, off 0.6%, and telecoms, down 0.5%
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks staged a modest advance Tuesday, following a sharp selloff on Monday, as investors' attention turned to corporate earnings and the latest housing reports.
The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 65.16 points to 12,266.80
The S&P 500 prospered 7.48 points to 1,312.62, while the Nasdaq Composite Index moved into the green 9.59 points to 2,744.97.
Johnson & Johnson was the top performer on the Dow, with shares rising more than 3%, after the company reported better-than-expected sales and earnings. Alcoa, Caterpillar and DuPont were other big gainers.
Traveler's was the biggest drag on the blue-chip index, falling more than 1.4%.
Shares of Harley Davidson sank nearly 5%, making it the S&P 500's biggest loser on disappointing earnings, while the Nasdaq was weighed down by Seagate Technology, which reported an 82% drop in quarterly profit.
Shares of Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs fell 2%. The firm reported a 21% drop in net income to $2.7 billion U.S, and said it sees "encouraging indications" for global economic activity.
Texas Instruments shares fell 0.5%, after the company reported first-quarter earnings that missed analysts' estimates late Monday. The company cited the earthquake in Japan, saying it impacted consumer demand and production during the quarter.
After the bell Tuesday, technology giants Intel and IBM will report their results. Analysts are looking for Intel to earn 46 cents U.S. a share, while IBM is expected to post earnings of $2.30 U.S. a share.
Yahoo! will also reporting earnings after the bell Tuesday.
On Monday, real estate site Zillow and Chinese social networking company Renren each filed for initial public offerings.
On things economic, the U.S. Commerce Department announced that housing starts and building permits increased in March.
Housings starts jumped 7.2% to an annual rate of 549,000 in March while building permits climbed 11.2% to a rate of 594,000. Economists had expected a rate of 520,000 housing starts in March and 540,000 building permits, according to a consensus compiled by Briefing.com.
Homebuilders rose on the news, with Pulte Homes shares rise 5% and KB Homes shares up 2% among others.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury gained some ground, lowering the yield to 3.36% from Monday’s 3.37%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil for February delivery gained back 83 cents to $107.95 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices ended the day up $3.60 to $1,495.90 U.S. an ounce.
