Equities fall deeper

Oct. 30, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --

Canadian stocks turned back to the downside on Friday, continuing recent volatile movement, as commodities dragged the resource sectors into the red. As the clock approached noon, the S&P/TSX composite index had plummeted 146.26 points, or 1.3%, to 10,928.96. Among gold stocks, Agnico-Eagle Mines plunged 5%, New Gold is down 3.6% and Yamana has lost 3.5%. Centerra Gold is down 0.4% after the company reported its third-quarter net earnings were $20.2 million U.S., 20% higher than $16.9 million U.S. in the previous year. Earnings per common share for the recent quarter grew 15% to $0.09 U.S. from $0.08 U.S. a year ago. Eldorado has dropped 2.1%, although the company reported its third-quarter net income was $30.15 million U.S. or $0.08 U.S. per share, compared with $17.04 million U.S. or $0.05 U.S. per share last year. Mining stocks are down, giving back some of yesterday's gains. HudBay has lost 3.1% and Inmet is down 2.1%. Financials are down, as Toronto-Dominion has dropped 2.1%, Bank of Montreal is down 1.7% and CIBC has dropped 1.6%. Fairfax Financial has added 3.4% after the company reported its net earnings increased to $562.4 million U.S., or $30.88 U.S. per share, from $467.6 million U.S., or $25.27 U.S. per share in the year-ago quarter. Energy stocks have also lost ground, Canadian Natural Resources has dropped 2.4%, Suncor is down 1.6% and Canadian Oil Sands has dropped 1.5%. Imperial Oil has added nearly 1% after the company reported its third quarter profit fell to $547 million from $1.38 billion in the year-ago period. On a per share basis, net income decreased to $0.64 from $1.57. Operating revenues declined to $5.54 billion from $9.47 billion. Tim Hortons has dropped 1.6% after the company announced third-quarter net income of $61.18 million or $0.34 per share, compared to $78.76 million or $0.43 per share last year. Domtar Corp. has surged 12.4% after the company reported net earnings of $183 million U.S. or $4.24 U.S. per share for the third quarter, compared to $43 million U.S. or $1.00 U.S. per share for the third quarter of 2008. GLG Life Tech Corp. has added 6.1% after the company said its third-quarter net income after income taxes and non-controlling interests was $1.39 million compared with a loss of $0.95 million in the comparable period. The company reported earnings per share of $0.02 versus a loss per share of $0.01 for the quarter. Cogeco Cable has dropped 4.3% after the company said its fourth-quarter net income increased to $46.57 million or $0.96 per share from $31.86 million or $0.65 per share in the prior-year period. Economically speaking, Statistics Canada reported real gross domestic product fell 0.1% in August. GDP was expected to rise 0.1%, after being flat in July. The Canadian dollar retreated 1.18 cents to 92.51 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET Of the 14 TSX subgroups, nine were in negative territory at midday. Metals and mining slid 3%, materials were off 2.8%, gold down 2.6%. Telecoms led the gainers, up 1.7%, information technology picked up 0.5%, while industrials added 0.1%. The TSX Venture Exchange was down 11.01 points to 1,299.41, while the Nasdaq Canada index faded 15.97 points to 642.38. ON WALLSTREET In New York, stocks fell, extending a second straight weekly drop for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, after personal spending dropped for the first time in five months and consumer confidence decreased. The dollar and Treasuries gained, while commodities retreated. At the lunch break, the Dow Jones Industrials trailed yesterday's close by 100.36 points, to 1%, to 9,862.22. The S&P 500 index gave back 12.49 points to 1,053.62. The Nasdaq composite index lost 19.17 points to 2,078.38. American Express Co., Home Depot Inc. and DuPont Co. declined after Commerce Department figures showed a 0.5% decrease in purchases last month and the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index retreated. MetLife Inc. tumbled 5% after the biggest U.S. life insurer posted a third straight loss. The S&P 500 slid after surging the most since July yesterday as the government said the economy returned to growth following the worst contraction in seven decades. Today's pullback came as the Commerce Department figures also showed that incomes were unchanged in September, while the savings rate climbed. The report showed inflation was lower than the Federal Reserve's long-term projection, indicating the policy makers can keep rates low. Equities also fell today as the consumer confidence data signaled job losses may continue to restrain household spending. The final Michigan index of consumer sentiment decreased to 70.6 from 73.5 in September, which was the highest in more than a year. The index was forecast to fall to 70, the median in a Bloomberg survey of 60 economists. McAfee Inc. declined 8.4% after the second-biggest maker of security software reported third-quarter sales that fell short of some analysts' estimates. Gauges of energy and raw-materials producers lost at least 0.8%. Crude oil, copper and gold fell as the dollar rose, reducing the appeal of commodities as an alternative investment. Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest company by market value, dropped 1.2%, while Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the biggest publicly traded copper producer, retreated 1.5%. Genworth Financial Inc. surged 10%. The life insurer and mortgage guarantor reported its first profit in six quarters and beat analysts' estimates. Operating income available to common shareholders, which excludes some investment results, was 18 cents U.S. a share, beating by 15 cents U.S. the average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. So far, earnings-per-share have topped estimates at 81% of the companies in the S&P 500 that posted third-quarter results, which would be a record proportion for a full quarter, according to Bloomberg data going back to 1993. Treasury prices were up sharply, lowering the yields for the benchmark 10-year note to 3.43% from Thursday's 3.49%. Prices and yields move in opposite directions. The price of a barrel of oil stumbled $1.66 to $78.21 U.S. Gold prices dropped $8 to $1,039 U.S. an ounce.