TSX says, so long, ¿09

Dec. 31, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --

Toronto stocks were slightly higher amid light trading as the end of 2010 draws near. Strength in the consumer staples sector has led the way. The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 28.65 points to close the day, week, month, year and decade at 11,746.11. Markets will be closed tomorrow for New Year's Day. Consumer staples stocks have picked up ground, as Saputo gained 2.1% to $30.80, Shopper's Choice was up 1.7% to $45.41 and Weston George ahead 1.4% to $66.94 and Jean Contu was up 1.6% to $9.69. On the downside, miners have lost ground, as Teck Resources declined 2.2% to $36.93 and First Quantum was down 1.5% to $80.30. Black Diamond Income Fund rallied 8.4% to $16.70 after being upgraded to "strong buy" from "outperform" at Raymond James. Endeavour Silver dropped 2.3% to $3.83 after brokerage Haywood initiated coverage of the stock with a "sector perform" rating. C Crocotta Energy gained 5% to $1.05 after it said it would be selling various non-core properties for $33 million and announced it had signed a new bank credit facility for $58 million. Liquidation World dropped 4.1% to 70 cents after the company reported a net loss of $3.39 million, compared with a loss of $2.71 million last year. Bombardier said a contact with Spanish national rail operator Renfe will bring it revenue of $405 million U.S. The stock was flat at $4.80. There was no major economic data due on Thursday. Next week's agenda will include the industrial product price index on Tuesday. The Canadian dollar surged 0.32 cents to 95.14 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET Of the 14 TSX subgroups, nine closed the year higher. Consumer staples were the best off, gaining 1.3%, while telecoms and consumer discretionaries were up 0.5%. The five laggards were weighed by metals and mining, down 1.1%, global base metals, off 0.8%, and information technology, faltering 0.5%. The TSX Venture Exchange remained ahead 26.23 points to 1,521.11, while the Nasdaq Canada index regained 1.43 points to 730.08. ON WALLSTREET In New York, issues slumped Thursday in a thinly-traded session on the last day of 2009 as investors mulled a better-than-expected report on initial jobless claims at the end of a big year on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrials was down 120.46 points, or 1.1% to 10,428.05, after ending the previous session at the highest point since Oct. 1, 2008. The broader S&P 500 was off 11.32 points to 1,115.10, after ending the previous session just short of a 15-month high, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq stumbled 22.13 points to 2,269.15, having ended the previous session at the highest point since Oct. 3, 2008. Investors are welcoming the end of a strong year on Wall Street. As of Wednesday's close, the Dow was up 20.2%, the S&P 500 was up 24.7% and the Nasdaq had gained 45.1%. Stocks are up even more substantially since bottoming in March. Since closing at a 12-year low on March 9, the Dow has gained 61% and the S&P 500 has gained 66.5%. Since closing at a 6-year low on the same date, the Nasdaq is up 81%. Time Warner Cable and Fox are continuing to try to hammer out a deal for TWC to continue airing Fox-owned broadcast networks. If a deal can't be reached by midnight, all of Fox's broadcast networks and some of its cable channels will disappear from the televisions of most of Time Warner Cable's 13 million subscribers. Thursday, the government's weekly jobless claims report showed initial unemployment claim filings fell to 432,000, the lowest level since July 2008. The number was an unexpected improvement from a revised 454,000 filings the previous week. A Briefing.com consensus of analysts had estimated there would be 460,000 new filers for unemployment insurance last week. Treasury prices dropped sharply, raising yields on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.84% from Wednesday's 3.79%. Prices and yields move in opposite directions. The price of a barrel of oil gained 24 cents to $79.52 U.S. Gold prices strengthened four dollars to $1,097 an ounce U.S.