TSX recovers

Nov. 27, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --

Bay Street stocks bounced back on Friday and recovered some of the sharp losses seen in the previous session. Health-care and industrial stocks have led the gainers. As the clock approached noon, the S&P/TSX Composite Index had regained 75.66 points to 11,512.46, out of the rubble of Thursday's 200-point tumble. Health-care stocks are up, as QLT has soared 11.4% after RBC Capital upgraded the stock to "outperform" from "sector perform" and boosted its target price to $6 from $4.50. On Wednesday, the company announced the settlement of its litigation with Massachusetts General Hospital. Industrials are up, as WestJet has rallied 2.6%, Canadian Pacific has gained 2.3% and Canadian National Railway is up 2.2%. Gold stocks have lost about 1% as the precious metal dropped sharply on the Comex. Novagold has declined 2.3% and Centerra Gold has lost 1.5%. In corporate news, Wireless services provider WebTech Wireless has dropped 4% after the company said it has reduced its full-time workforce by over 10% and adopted other cost saving measures. Pinetree Capital has dropped 5.6% after the company announced that it acquired of 1.58 million common shares of Latin American Minerals. In economic news, the Canadian currency account balance data showed a third-quarter deficit of a record $13.12 billion, compared to a revised deficit of $11.94 billion in the second quarter. The Canadian dollar was still negative by 0.18 cents to 94.08 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET Of the 14 TSX subgroups, nine had made their way out of the dungeon into daylight. Industrials and health-care stocks were ahead 1.2% by noon, while financials gained 1%. Global base metals weighed down the losing subgroups by 2%, while gold stocks dipped 1% and utilities were off 0.5%. The TSX Venture Exchange remained in the red by 10.53 points to 1,408.84, while the Nasdaq Canada surrendered 12.50 points to 650.75. ON WALLSTREET In New York, stocks tumbled Friday morning as fears about the fallout from Dubai's debt problems rattled Wall Street in a thinly-traded session following Thanksgiving. The Dow Jones Industrials was off its lows of the day, but was still down 128.78 points, or 1.2%, to 10,335.62. The S&P 500 index stumbled 15.50 points to 1,095.53, while the Nasdaq jettisoned 26.51 points to 2,149.54. All financial markets were closed Thursday for Thanksgiving and the stock market closes at 1 p.m. Friday. Trading is expected to be volatile and volume very light with many Wall Street pros taking a five-day weekend. The problems Friday stem from Dubai World, the finance arm of Dubai, which is considering a postponement of payments on nearly $60 billion U.S. in debt. The debt was used to fuel a construction boom over the last few years, including its palm-tree shaped island projects, but the Middle East nation was hit hard by a real estate crunch. Retailers -- including Toys R Us, which opened its doors at midnight on Thanksgiving -- were welcoming shoppers taking advantage of "doorbuster" deals to mark Black Friday, the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Wal-Mart Stores, the world's biggest retailer, stayed open Thanksgiving Day, but offered its specials beginning at 5 a.m. While economists are calling an end to the recession, a record high jobless rate at 10.2% and a tight lending environment were likely to cause consumers to curb spending. AIG announced late Wednesday it agreed to settle a long-standing legal battle with the insurance giant's former chairman, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. The parties agreed to release each other from all claims, including those filed by Greenberg against AIG for payments of future legal fees and other settlement costs. They also agreed to submit past claims for AIG's payment of legal fees to a third party to determine how much AIG is legally obligated to pay up to $150 million U.S. Treasury prices shot up, lowering the yields on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.22% from Wednesday's 3.26%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions. The price of a barrel of oil tumbled $2.22 to $75.74 U.S. Gold prices dumped eight dollars to $1,180 U.S.