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Mar. 19, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
Bay Street stocks were lingering in the red in mid-morning deals Friday as a firm dollar put pressure on oil and gold prices.
By noon, the S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 95.13 points or 0.79% to 11,944.88, after settling above the 12,000-mark in the past five sessions.
Meanwhile, today's inflation data came in higher than expected, raising speculation that Bank of Canada might hike rates sooner than expected. Also strong retail sales numbers reinforced the view that the economy is on recovery path.
The Energy Index was down, with Encana Corp shedding 2.30%. Celtic Exploration dipped 3.09%.
Oil and gas producer Nexen Inc. has made a significant discovery of oil in Gulf of Mexico, partnering with Shell Inc. Nexen eased 0.54%.
Oil and natural gas company Iteration Energy was down 2.50%. It reported narrower fourth-quarter net loss of $0.04 per share, compared to $1.48 loss per share last year.
Meanwhile, oil and gas industry services provider Flint Energy Services gained 4.04% after it turned to profit in the fourth quarter, reporting earnings of $0.32 per share, compared to a loss of $4.44 per share in the prior-year period.
Among gold stocks, Rand Gold was down 2.49%.
African Barrick Gold plc announced that it will raise about $834 million through its initial public offerings of 101.08 million new ordinary shares to institutional investors in the U.K. The net proceeds will be used to repay loans outstanding to Barrick Gold Corp. and its subsidiary companies. Barrick shares were down 1.46%.
Gold explorer Eldorado Gold surrendered 3.69% after reporting lower net income of $0.26 per share for the full year 2009, compared to $0.46 per share for 2008.
Agnico-Eagle Mines was down 1.59%. The company announced a private placement of senior secured notes aggregating $600 million.
In the base metals sector, First Quantum Minerals moved down 2.42%.
Fertilizer maker Agrium Inc shed 1.72% to $70.49. UBS hiked its price target on the stock to $83 from $72.
Information technology solutions provider MacDonald Dettwiler was down 3.86% to C$39.84. Raymond James upped its price target on the stock to $44 from $42.
Retail stores operator Dollarama Inc. eased 0.42%. The company announced the appointment of Michael Ross as new Senior Vice President, CFO and Secretary, effective April 12.
Infrastructure sector services provider Armtec Infrastructure Income Fund shed 7.07%. The company reported earnings from operations of $6 million for the fourth quarter, down from $11.7 million in the year-ago quarter. However, earnings per unit improved to $0.40 from $0.36 in the prior-year quarter.
Transportation services provider Student Transportation edged down 0.59% after it said it has acquired Wilkerson Transportation Co. Inc., and expects this move to add annualized revenues of $3 million.
On the positive side, footwear retailer Sterling Shoes Income Fund rallied 20.78% even after reporting lower net income for the fourth quarter at $0.82 per share, compared to $0.90 per share for the year-ago quarter.
In economic news, Statistics Canada reported that consumer prices rose 1.6% in the 12 months to February, following a 1.9% jump in January. The growth in inflation surpassed economists' expectations for a rise of 1.4%, putting pressure on the Bank of Canada to hike interest rates sooner than expected.
In other reports, the agency said retail sales rose 0.7% in January to $35.70 billion, largely due to sales in home improvement products.
The Canadian dollar was down 0.05 cents to 98.49 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but four of the 14 TSX subgroups were lower by lunch hour. Metals and mining stocks slid 2%, while materials suffered 1.8%, and gold was off 1.7%.
The four climbers were led by health-care stocks, up 0.4%, telecoms, up 0.3%, and consumer staples, ahead 0.2%.
The TSX Venture Exchange retreated 14.09 points to 1,560.77, while the Nasdaq Canada index jettisoned 10.71 points to 790.99.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks inched lower in morning trading Friday as investors hesitated after pushing the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite to 18-month highs in the previous session
The Dow Jones industrial average moved 60.61 points lower by midday to 10,718.56. The S&P 500 index lost 8.25 points to 1,157.58, while the Nasdaq composite let go of 21.60 points to 2,369.68.
Stocks were pushed higher Thursday, when investors welcomed reports that suggest pricing pressure remains mild and that jobless claims fell last week.
No economic reports were on tap for Friday, after Thursday's heavy influx of data on inflation, jobless claims and manufacturing.
Markets may also be a bit volatile due to quadruple witching -- a quarterly event when stock index futures and options as well as individual stock futures and options all expire at the same time.
The event can lead to wide fluctuations in prices of the underlying stocks and increased volatility in the broader market. But recently the witching's impact tends to be spread throughout the week, rather than hitting in the last hour of the session Friday, as was once the case.
After the closing bell Thursday, smart phone maker Palm reported a loss of 61 cents U.S. per share for the quarter ended Feb. 28. Analysts expected a loss of only 43 cents U.S. per share.
Palm has not posted a quarterly profit since the fourth fiscal quarter of 2007. Shares of Palm plunged 18% in morning trading.
The price of the benchmark 10-year note rose and its yield fell to 3.67%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil fell $1.82 to $80.35 U.S.
Gold prices dropped $22 to $1,106 U.S.