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Apr. 14, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
The Toronto stock market registered a solid gain Wednesday afternoon amid a string of strong U.S. earnings reports and economic data indication the American economy continues to improve. The S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced 102.89 points to end the day at 12,204.41 The financial sector was the leading TSX component, as CIBC climbed $1.74 to $74.74 while Royal Bank rose $1.78 to $61.31. Elsewhere in the sector, Standard & Poor's cut its ratings on Sun Life Financial Inc.'s key North American insurance units by a notch, to AA minus from AA. The ratings agency said it expects 2010 operating earnings to fall short of its expectations. Its shares were up 19 cents at $32.19. The Toronto market's energy group rose as Canadian Natural Resources improved $1.05 to $79.20. Among gold issues, Kinross Gold was 27 cents higher at $18.49. Barrick Gold Corp. shares rose 25 cents to $40.66 after the miner won a limited injunction in a Nevada court that allows for continued operation of its new $500-million mine at Cortez Hills. A Nevada judge on Tuesday denied an Indian tribe's request to halt the operation until trial. The native tribes in Nevada have sued Barrick to stop expansion of the mine near a sacred site. The base metals sector rose while May copper was unchanged at $3.61 U.S. a pound. HudBay Minerals gained 36 cents to $13.66 and Labrador Iron Mines Holdings climbed 27 cents to $7.20. A major drag on the TSX was Potash Corp. Its shares fell $2.69 to $109.61 after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock from "buy" to "neutral", saying "checks suggest the planned domestic potash price hike is not going through and recent nitrogen and phosphate prices have weakened." Corus Entertainment Inc. reported that quarterly revenue beat expectations, rising 6% from a year ago to $192.7 million. But the Toronto-based company's second-quarter net income missed expectations -- falling to $14.6 million, or 18 cents per diluted share -- down about 50% from a year earlier. Analysts had expected net income of 32 cents a share. Corus shares lost nine cents to $19.77. In other corporate news, Research In Motion Ltd. shares ran ahead $1.38 $73.92 after the BlackBerry maker announced it was purchasing for cancellation two million common shares. The buyback, representing 0.36% of common shares outstanding, is pursuant to private agreements between RIM and a non-related third-party financial institution. Trican Well Service Ltd., a Calgary-based oilpatch services company, says it had struck a deal to increase the size of its bought-deal financing to $200 million from $150 million after strong demand from the investment community. Under the plan, Trican will now issue nearly 15.4 million common shares. Its stock declined 40 cents to $13.19. North American Palladium Ltd. shares ran ahead 35 cents to $4.90 after it said it had restarted production at its flagship Lac des Iles mine in northwestern Ontario after an 18-month shutdown, and is currently operating around the clock with two 12-hour shifts per day. Benton Resources Corp. said it plans to spin out a project in Northern Ontario into a new copper-platinum group metal miner called Coldwell Copper Corp. because the so-called "Bermuda" project was not generating "the deserved value for this valuable asset within the context of the company's other assets." Its shares surged six cents or 12.77% to 53 cents on the Venture Exchange. The Canadian dollar surpassed its American cousin, gaining 0.53 cents to $1.0008 U.S. ON BAYSTREET All but three of the 14 TSX subgroups were higher. Toronto was led by financials, up 2%, real-estate, ahead 1% and information technology, advancing 0.9%. The three losing groups were weighed by health-care stocks, off 1.1%, utilities, down 0.7%, and consumer staples, off 0.1%. The TSX Venture Exchange climbed 9.94 points to 1,674.88, while the Nasdaq Canada index moved 11.45 points higher to 808.97. ON WALLSTREET In New York, stocks rallied Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase and Intel posted strong quarterly results and a report on retail sales came in better than forecast. The Dow Jones industrial average grew 103.69 points to 11,123.11, the highest it's been since September 2008. The S&P 500 index added 13.35 points to 1,210.65, marking the first time the index has closed above the 1,200 mark in almost 19 months. The Nasdaq composite gained 38.87 points to 2,504.86. It was the first time since June 2008 that the index has ended above 2,500. Year-to-date, the Dow is up 6.6%, the S&P has gained 8.4% and the Nasdaq has soared 10.3%. JPMorgan Chase reported a $3.3-billion U.S. profit for the first quarter, though the bank continued to suffer losses in its consumer loan portfolio. The New York City-based bank said it earned 74 cents U.S. a share during the quarter, up 55% from a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of 64 cents U.S. a share. Shares of JPMorgan were up more than 4.2%. JPMorgan kicks off the reporting period for big banks, most of which are expected to post a profitable quarter. After U.S. markets closed Tuesday, chipmaker Intel reported earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street's estimates. Shares were up more than 3% Wednesday. This week's reports are tech heavy, experts said, and Intel's results could bode well for companies such as Google that will report later this week. He expects the technology sector to continue rising in the coming weeks, and energy shares could be a "dark horse" gainer. Economically speaking, the U.S. government's monthly retail sales report and a report on consumer inflation were released before the market opened. Retail sales jumped 1.6% in March, beating estimates from economists surveyed by Briefing.com. Sales excluding autos rose 0.6%, also topping predictions. The Consumer Price Index a measure of consumer inflation, rose 0.1% in March, in line with predictions. Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, was unchanged. A separate report showed business inventories rose 0.5% in March, slightly higher than the 0.4% jump that was forecast. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before a joint session of Congress on the economic outlook, saying private-sector demand will be "sufficient" to spur moderate recovery in coming months, but more time is needed to recover job losses. Separately, the Fed released its Beige Book report, which said economic activity expanded "somewhat" in 11 of the central bank's 12 districts. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note subsided in price, driving the yield up to 3.85% from Tuesday's 3.81%. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. The price of a barrel of oil regained $1.89 to $85.94 U.S. Gold prices picked up three dollars to $1,156 U.S. an ounce.