Business
Indexes find daylight
Indexes find daylight
About this update from Sherritt International Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"\nIndexes find daylight\n\nJobs, trade figures provide damper\n Mar. 13, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) -- 04:26 pm EST\nMarkets on both sides of the border had to struggle, but most still came out ahead to end a fairly positive week. Canadian investors got some more negative economic news with the release of Statistics Canada's February job figures, otherwise, the gains that powered a fourth straight positive session could have been even more so. After floundering around much of Friday, Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index was slightly higher, 1.84 points, to close the week at 8,284.11The TSX financial sector ticked higher after rising almost 20% over the past three sessions.Bank of Montreal declined 57 cents to $31.36 while Scotiabank fell 31 cents to $29.74.The energy sector declined ahead of a meeting of OPEC Sunday and investors are wondering if the cartel will cut production to support prices.Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency has lowered its estimate for global oil demand in 2009. Petro-Canada slipped 68 cents to $29.25 and Canadian Natural Resources was down 97 cents to $47.04.The base metals sector moved down with Ivanhoe Mines down 63 cents to $5.56 after the Vancouver-based miner said the Mongolian parliament has put off discussions about its investment agreement for the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mining complex until it reconvenes again next month.Sherritt International declined 13 cents to $2.04.The gold sector was up slightly, as Goldcorp Inc. rose $1.19 to $37.67.The jobless numbers show the unemployment rate jumped to 7.7% last month from 7.2% in January as the economy shed 82,600 jobs.This was the second outsized job contraction in a row following January's massive 129,000 labour market retreat.Also on the economic front, Canada posted a record trade deficit in January on vanishing trade in automobiles with the U.S., signaling a deepening recession. The merchandise trade deficit was $993 million in January, Statistics Canada said today. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast a January deficit of $1 billion. The Ottawa-based agency also increased its estimate for the December deficit, which was the first since 1976, to $652 million from an initially reported $458 million. Canada's trade balance has swung from a surplus of more than $5 billion in August as commodity prices dropped and U.S. consumers slowed purchases ...