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Dec. 30, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --
Toronto stocks experienced a slack opening on Wednesday as the recent recovery rally appears to have run out of steam. Canadian stocks have been in a consolidation mode for the past three months, having gained over 50%, March through September 2009.
The S&P/TSX Composite index sneaked up 2.04 points soon after the opening bell to 11,703.85.
Yesterday, the main index snapped its four-day winning streak, pulling back after challenging a 14-month high. The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed at 11,701.81, losing 52.80 points or 0.45%.
In a major cross-border deal, the Canadian government has approved PetroChina's $1.9 billion-bid to buy a stake in two Alberta oil-sands projects. In another deal, Canada's industry ministry has given the green light for a $769-million bid by Ciena Corp to acquire a unit of bankrupt Nortel Networks.
Energy stocks could be in play as the price of crude oil edged up ahead of the EIA inventory data scheduled for release later today. The API said yesterday that crude inventories rose by 1.73 million barrels last week to 330.5 million barrels.
Scotiabank said it has completed the acquisition of a further 13.2% stake in Xi'an City Commercial Bank or XACB, increasing Scotiabank's holding to 14.8%.
Raymond James analyst rates Corriente Resources at Market Perform and hiked its price target to $8.60 from $7.00
In yet another twist in its M&A deal, Canplast said it had received a takeover offer from Goldcorp to match the revised proposal from the rival Minera Penmont. Under the new agreement, Canplats shareholders would receive, for each Canplats common share, $4.60 in cash and shares of a new exploration company with a notional value of $0.20.
Castle Gold said Argonaut Gold had acquired 91.25% of its common shares at $1.29 per share.
Energy producer Run of River Power announced a non-brokered private placement of 12.20 million common shares aggregating $2.32 million.
The Canadian dollar slid nearly a full cent to 94.89 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but one of the 14 TSX subgroups were lower, with health-care stocks down 0.5%, materials and industrials sagging 0.4%.
Global base metals proved the lone gainer at the bell, climbing 0.7%.
The TSX Venture Exchange stumbled 1.16 points to 1,482.40, while the Nasdaq Canada index slid 4.06 points to 728.02.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, equities slid at Wednesday's open, after the momentum of a six-session streak of gains came to an end.
The Dow Jones Industrials was down 36.50 points to 10,508.91, while the broader S&P 500 was off 4.20 points to 1,122, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq backpedaled 5.83 points to 2,282.57.
Stocks ended a choppy session slightly lower Tuesday, with the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq breaking six-session winning streaks.
Financial institutions may be in the spotlight again after a published report that GMAC Financial Services may receive $3.5 billion U.S. in additional aid to the $13.5 billion U.S. it has already received from the government.
Trading volume will likely be very low with many market participants out on holiday for the week, so small moves could cause major volatility during the shortened week on Wall Street. The stock market is closed Friday in observance of New Year's Day.
Shortly after the market opened, a report on Chicago-area manufacturing for December will be released. A consensus of analysts polled by Briefing.com predicted a decline to 55.1 in December from 56.1 the previous month.
The government's weekly crude oil inventories report is due at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Treasury prices gained an inch of ground, lowering yields on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.79% from Tuesday's 3.80%.
The price of a barrel of oil gained nine cents to $78.96 U.S.
Gold prices slipped nine dollars to $1,090 an ounce U.S.