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Feb. 22, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
Toronto's main index suffered modest losses in mid-morning deals Monday, as traders booked some profits following a long winning streak. The market looked for direction in the absence of any major economic releases from either side of the border.
As the clock approached noon, the S&P/TSX composite index was down 57.93 points, to 11,651.36.
The Financials Index lost ground with Royal Bank of Canada down 0.60% and Canadian Western Bank down 0.34%. IGM Financial Inc. gained 0.72%.
The Gold Index was down, as Barrick Gold Corp. shed 1.80% and Goldcorp Inc. lost 0.77%. Dundee Precious Metals Inc. plunged 5.19% after the miner said it plans to sell 20 million of its common shares to a syndicate of underwriters led by GMP Securities LP for aggregate gross proceeds of $66 million.
In the energy sector, Imperial Oil Ltd. gained 0.25% while Encana Corp. was down 0.69%.
Among technology stocks, Research In Motion Ltd. lost 1.92% and CGI Group Inc. eased 0.33%.
Open Text Corp. which announced plans to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Nstein Technologies Inc. in a transaction valued at approximately $35 million, rose 2.03%.
The Diversified Metals Index was up, as First Quantum Minerals Ltd. rose 2.27% and Teck Resources Ltd. added 0.60%, while Major Drilling Group International Inc. was down 1.77%.
Lundin Mining Corp. gained 0.68% after the base metals miner in its mineral reserve and resource estimates reported record ore tonnages at two of its mines.
The Canadian dollar slid 0.36 cents to 95.90 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 14 TSX subgroups, nine were down by lunchtime. Gold was 1.3% less lustrous, followed by materials stocks, off 0.9% and energy, down 0.6%.
Among the five gainers, telecoms, utilities and metals and mining stocks all gained a marginal 0.3%.
The TSX Venture Exchange stumbled 0.51 points to 1,531.39, while the Nasdaq Canada index lost 13.71 points to 742.55.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks churned early Monday as investors welcomed Schlumberger and Smith International's merger announcement and Lowe's better-than-expected quarterly results, but showed caution after a two-week advance.
The Dow Jones industrial average backpedaled 11.94 points by midday to 10,390.41. The S&P 500 index tailed off 1.80 points to 1,107.37, and the Nasdaq composite lost 4.72 points to 2,239.15.
Stocks ended higher last week as investors digested the Federal Reserve's decision to lift the emergency bank lending rate. Stocks also posted gains for the second week in a row after four weeks of declines.
But trading could be volatile this week amid ongoing worries about the outlook for the U.S. economy, the debt situation in Greece and the pace of growth in China.
Schlumberger and Smith International announced Sunday that their boards of directors approved a merger agreement between the two oil services companies. The stock-swap transaction values the deal at $11 billion U.S., based on Friday's closing prices.
The latest survey from the National Association of Business Economics showed that leading economists believe the U.S. recovery will remain firmly on track.
President Obama will propose legislation that would allow the government to block excessive rate hikes by health insurers, according to sources.
New restrictions on credit card practices went into effect Monday. The new rules will make it harder for card issuers to raise interest rates on accounts which are paid on time.
Treasury prices fell, raising the yield on the 10-year note to 3.79% from 3.77% late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil dropped a penny to $79.80 U.S.
Gold prices gave back eight dollars to $1,114 U.S.