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Oct. 22, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --
Toronto stocks have turned higher in Thursday afternoon trading and erased most of yesterday's slide. Consumer discretionary and financial stocks have paced the rally.
The S&P/TSX Composite index closed Thursday's session 91.35 points higher to 11,533.37.
The Consumer Discretionary Index has rallied, as Gildan Activewear gained 3.9%, Tim Hortons climbed 1.8% and Magna International was up 1.5%.
Meanwhile, Corus Entertainment lost 2.5% as the company announced its fourth-quarter net income was $18.7 million or $0.23 per share, compared to net income of $17.4 million or $0.21 per share last year.
Financial stocks were up, as Toronto-Dominion prospered 2.1%, Bank of Montreal was up 1.9% and CIBC added 1.6%.
In other corporate news, Harvest Energy Trust surged 33.4% after the oil and natural gas company announced it has agreed to be acquired by state-run Korea National Oil Corp. in a deal worth about $4.1 billion, including the assumption of debt.
Husky Energy lost 3.7% after the company reported third-quarter net earnings of $338 million or $0.40 per share compared with $1.27 billion or $1.50 per share in the same quarter last year.
Precision Drilling Trust reported third-quarter net income of $72 million or $0.25 per unit, compared to $82 million or $0.61 per unit last year. However, the stock has turned higher and is up 2.4%.
Potash gained 1.2% after the company reported third-quarter net earnings of $248.8 million U.S. or $0.82 U.S. per share, compared to $1.2 billion U.S. or $3.93 U.S. per share, in the same quarter last year.
Cangene Corp. soared 24.6% after the company reported full-year net income of $59.9 million or $0.86 per share, compared with $29.6 million or $0.42 per share a year earlier.
On the economic front, Canadian retail sales data increased 0.8% in August, according to data released Thursday morning. A rise of 0.1% is forecast, compared to a revised drop of 0.5% in July. Excluding autos, sales rose 0.5% after falling a revised 0.7% in July.
The Canadian dollar nipped up 0.02 cents to 95.46 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but two of the 14 TSX subgroups were higher. Health-care stocks were highest, gaining 1.6%, followed by financials and real-estate stocks, picking up 1.5%.
The two losing groups were gold, down 0.5% and materials, off 0.1%.
The TSX Venture Exchange stumbled 8.40 points to 1,334.19, while the Nasdaq Canada index marched ahead 12.17 points to 714.43.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, blue chips led a bigger stock market rally Thursday, as better-than-expected results from four components pushed the Dow industrials above 10,000 again and reassured investors about the ongoing corporate reporting period.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 131.95 points, or 1.3%, to 10,081.31. The S&P 500 index increased 11.51 points to 1,092.91. The Nasdaq composite index gave back 14.56 points to 2,165.29.
Investors took in stride announcements from the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration's pay czar regarding curbing executive pay.
Stocks dipped in the early going, before managing a blue-chip led charge starting in late morning. Gains were broad based, with 25 of 30 Dow stocks rising, led by four companies that reported results.
One of those components, Travelers, jumped more than 7% and was one of many financial stocks that gained on the day.
Stocks have been seesawing over the last week, with the Dow topping and giving up the 10,000 level and the S&P struggling around 1,100. Both major indexes, as well as the Nasdaq, are at nearly one-year highs.
Stocks tumbled Wednesday after influential analyst Richard Bove of Rochdale Securities cut his rating on Wells Fargo, sparking a steep selloff in the banking sector.
But the selloff proved to be short term, with investors again using any selling as an opportunity to buy on the dips, as has been the trend for months.
Stocks have been on a tear since bottoming in March at the low point of the financial market crisis. Since hitting a more than 12-year low on March 9, the S&P 500 has risen just short of 60% as of Wednesday's close.
Despite persistent calls for a selloff of anywhere from 10% to 15%, any declines in the period have been moderate, in the 3% to 5% range.
Additionally, the declines have been met with a rash of buyers eager to return. For now, those trends are still in place, according to some experts.
Obama administration "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg called for the seven biggest federal bailout recipients to cut in half total compensation for their top executives.
Additionally, the Federal Reserve proposed a broad overhaul of pay policies at 28 of the largest U.S. banks. The review is part of its effort to temper some of the triggers to the risk taking that exacerbated the credit crisis.
Dow component Travelers said its quarterly profit more than tripled, easily topping analysts' estimates. The insurer also lifted its full-year forecast to a profit of between $5.30 and $5.50 U.S. per share. Shares jumped 7.6%.
Fellow Dow component AT&T reported a better-than-expected third quarter profit thanks to the impact of Apple's iPhone, for which it has been the exclusive carrier. Wireless revenue jumped 10% in the quarter. Shares gained 1%.
Dow component McDonald's reported higher third-quarter earnings that topped estimates on weaker third-quarter revenue that missed estimates. Shares rose 2.8%.
3M, also a Dow component, said third-quarter earnings and revenue fell from a year ago, but both were above analysts' estimates. Shares gained 3.2%.
Other big stocks boosting the Dow included Boeing,JPMorgan Chase, Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble and IBM.
Merck, the fifth Dow component to report Thursday morning, said its earnings and revenue rose from a year ago and topped estimates. Shares of the drugmaker were little changed.
So far, 167 companies, or 33% of the S&P 500, have reported results. Profits are currently on track to have fallen 19.2% versus a year earlier, according to the latest from Thomson Reuters.
Revenue is expected to have dropped over 10% from a year ago.
Microsoft launched the newest version of its operating system, Windows 7. The tech behemoth, a Dow component, is hoping that users who have been running XP for years will switch to the new system -- and forgive it for the disappointing performance of Windows Vista in 2007.
Microsoft reports quarterly results Friday.
Economically speking, the index of leading economic indicators rose 1% in September after rising a revised 0.4% in the previous month. Economists thought it would rise 0.8%.
The U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency's housing price index fell 0.3% in September after rising 0.3% in August. Economists thought it would rise 0.3%.
The government reported that initial jobless claims jumped by 11,000 to 531,000 in the week ended Oct. 17. This was more than 515,000 claims forecast by Briefing.com consensus.
The government said the continuing claims fell by 98,000 to about 5.9 million.
Treasury prices fell, raising the yields for the benchmark 10-year note to 3.42% from Wednesday's 3.38%. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil tailed off 18 cents to $81.27 U.S.
Gold prices lost $6 to $1,059 U.S. an ounce.