The Toronto stock market was little changed Wednesday afternoon as investors seemed puzzled over mixed signals about the U.S. and European economies.
The S&P/TSX Composite fought its way into positive territory, gaining 36.65 points to greet the final bell at 11,753.53
The Canadian dollar climbed 0.41 cents to 97.48 cents U.S.
A broad-based decline in numerous sectors on the TSX offset a surge in shares in market heavyweight Research In Motion Ltd. following reports the Blackberry maker had turned down potential takeover offers from online retail giant Amazon.com and other major technology players.
The Waterloo, Ont.,-based company’s stock gained 9.7% or $1.25 to close at $14.15
On the TSX, the mining sector was down along with the gold index. Shares in base metals miner Teck Resources lost 25 cents to $35.40, while shares in gold miner Goldcorp Inc. slid 1.8% or 84 cents to $46.04.
The energy sector was one of the few indexes in positive territory, as shares in oil producer Suncor Energy inched up two cents to $28.03.
In Canadian corporate news, shares in TMX Group Inc. bolted ahead 12 cents after it said it purchased a 16% minority stake in the Bermuda Stock Exchange. They closed trading at $41.97.
SNC-Lavalin has been awarded a contract by MacKay Operating Corp. to provide detailed engineering and procurement services for Alberta’s MacKay River Central Plant oilsands project.
Shares fell 65 cents to $47.29.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada said October retail sales jumped by an unexpected 1% from September, pushed up by stronger sales of motor vehicles and gasoline
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell just 0.54 points shy of breakeven to 1,439.75, while the Nasdaq Canada index gained 6.83 points to 361.53
The 14 Toronto subgroups ended the day evenly split between gainers and losers. Health-care stocks dropped 1.2% of their strength, while gold slid 0.5% and materials subsided 0.4%.
The seven gainers were led by telecoms, up 0.8%, while energy and utilities were ahead 0.6% each.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks trimmed some of the day's losses by Wednesday afternoon. Still, fears over the health of European banks and worse-than-expected readings on the housing market continued to trouble the markets.
The Dow Jones Industrials eked out a gain of 4.16 points to end an otherwise negative day at 12,107.70
The S&P 500 forged higher by 2.38 points, to 1,243.68, while the Nasdaq Composite dumped 25.76 points to 2,577.97
Investors also grew concerned about whether a sharp falloff in earnings at software maker Oracle could point to a broader slowdown in consumer spending and in the technology sector.
Oracle was the biggest drag on the index with shares dropping 14% on negative earnings.
Competitors including Fortinet, TIBCO Software, and Teradata dropped more than 10%.
After a 23% rally Tuesday on stable earnings, investment bank Jefferies received a downgrade from the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group. Its stock dropped roughly 5%.
Bank of America shares were up modestly after the Justice Department announced that a $335-million U.S. settlement with the bank Wednesday over the practices of failed mortgage lender Countrywide Financial. Bank of America acquired Countrywide in 2008.
After a bipolar week of trading for other bank stocks -- sharp losses Monday and then gains Tuesday -- Jefferies' competitors including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase stayed mostly flat Wednesday.
Shares of drugstore chain Walgreens dropped nearly 6% after it missed analysts' expectations.
The company reported quarterly earnings of 63 cents U.S. per share Wednesday morning. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected Walgreens to report earnings of 67 cents U.S. per share, up from 62 cents U.S. a year ago.
Used-car retailer CarMax shares declined nearly 7%, after the company posted quarterly results before the bell that fell short of expectations -- with earnings per share of 36 cents U.S.
The market's midweek sobriety follows an upward swing of more than 300 points on Tuesday, as concerns about the European debt crisis eased and investors welcomed signs of strength in the U.S. housing market.
Investors said it's difficult to read too much into this week's swings as trading is particularly light this time of year.
Economically speaking, the U.S. National Association of Realtors reported home sales rose 4% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million. That’s below the roughly six million homes a year that economists say are consistent with a healthy housing market.
But the group also released numbers showing that sales during the financial crisis were actually 14.3% worse than the association had originally reported. It revised its sales numbers down going back to 2007, because of flawed data analysis.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury edged back, pushing the yield up to 1.97% from 1.92% Tuesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil for January delivery gained $1.52 to $98.76 U.S. a barrel.
Gold futures for February delivery fell $4.00 to $1,614.70 U.S. an ounce.
