Toronto's main stock index rose moderately on Thursday morning, buoyed by stronger corporate earnings and a rise in prices for gold and several other commodities.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index eked out a gain of 1.83 points to finish at 13,894.40
The Canadian dollar gave back 0.1 cents to 105.18 cents U.S.
Among gold holdings, Barrick Gold settled 11 cents, or 0.2%, to $48.23, while Goldcorp added four cents to $52.34.
Stronger-than-expected earnings didn’t stop Potash Corp, from falling $1.40, or 2.6%, to $52.78, while paper maker Domtar Corp. vaulted $1.50, or 1.7%, to $87.75, and pharmacy chain Jean Coutu Group, up 14 cents, or 1.3%, at $10.59.
News and information provider Thomson Reuters fell $1.03, or 2.6%, to $38.10 after it reported adjusted earnings that missed estimates. It said it plans to sell two businesses to fund further investment.
Imperial Oil fell 36 cents, or 0.7% to $49.91 after reporting a lower-than-expected profit.
In discussing things economic, Statistics Canada came out this morning with figures showing that in February average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees rose by 4.0% from February 2010 to $874.83
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 5.12 points to 2,246.22 while the Nasdaq Canada index moved up 2.90 points to 772.26
In Toronto, gainers and losers were evenly split among the 14 subgroups. Industrials led the gainers, up 1%, while information technology issues were up 0.8% and real-estate spiked 0.6%.
Global base metals sagged 1.1%, their cousins in metals and mining slipped 1%, while materials stumbled 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks traded mixed Thursday as investors digested a series of company earnings reports as well as data on U.S. economic activity and weekly jobless claims.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 72.35 points to end the day at 12,763.60
The S&P 500 gathered 4.82 points to 1,360.48. The Nasdaq Composite Index tacked on 2.65 points to 2,872.53.
Boeing, DuPont and Disney were the Dow's biggest gainers. Exxon Mobil was the biggest drag on the blue-chip index after it reported sales that fell short of forecasts. Exxon Mobil's stock slid less than 1%.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq was weighed down by shares of Akamai Technologies, which dropped 14% after the company warned that sales would fall short of expectations.
After two days of gains, equities are taking a breather, traders said.
Citrix Systems shares jumped 9% on Thursday, making it the best performer on the S&P 500, after the software supplier posted a strong jump in profits and higher-than-expected revenue.
Norfolk Southern's stock rose 8% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue.
After the closing bell, analysts expect Microsoft to post a quarterly profit of $4.8 billion U.S., up 20% from a year earlier, on sales of $16.2 billion U.S.
Exelon, an electric utility, announced a merger with Constellation Energy, a supplier of natural gas and other energy products. The deal is worth $7.9 billion U.S. Constellation's stock rose 3.5%.
Gold futures for June delivery rose $14.20 to settle at a record high of $1,531.20 U.S. an ounce. Earlier, gold hit a new intraday record of $1,535.50 U.S. an ounce and moved even higher in electronic trading.
On the economic front, the Department of Commerce released its report on first-quarter gross domestic product, which expanded at an annual rate of 1.8% during the first quarter.
That was a bit less than expected. Economists had forecast a rate of 2%.
The government also reported its weekly initial jobless claims data. The Labor Department reported that jobless claims totaled 429,000 last week.
That was more than expected. Economists expected them to fall to 390,000. It also marked the third week in a row that jobless claims came in above the key 400,000 level.
A report from the National Association of Realtors showed a 5.1% rise in pending home sales for March, much higher than the 1.7% rise economists had expected.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury advanced, lowering yields to 3.31% from Wednesday’s 3.37%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil for June delivery was up 19 cents to $112.95 U.S. a barrel.
Gold futures for June delivery rose $14.20 to settle at a record high of $1,531.20 U.S. an ounce. Earlier, gold hit a new intraday record of $1,535.50 U.S. an ounce and moved even higher in electronic trading.
