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Apr. 13, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
Retreating commodities prices and a discouraging quarterly earnings numbers from aluminum producer Alcoa put pressure on the Canadian stocks in mid-morning deals Tuesday. The S&P/TSX Composite Index plunged 95.61 points by lunch time to 12,053.05. Meanwhile, economic data came in mixed. While Canadian trade surplus grew in February, new home prices rose at an anemic pace in February. Base metals and mining stocks turned in poor performances after the largest aluminum producer in U.S. Alcoa Inc reported lower than-expected first quarter sales, after the market closed Monday. First Quantum Minerals lost 2.55% and Inmet Mining moved down 1.25%. Among gold stocks, Barrick Gold shed 2.44% and Anglo Gold gave in 2.53%. In the energy space, Suncor Energy slipped 1.90% and Canadian Oil Trust shed 2.55%. Dollar stores operator Dollarama surrendered 3.53% after it said three of its shareholders will sell at least 10.1 million shares for $24.60 a share in a secondary offer. Agricultural products dealer Viterra Inc. eased 0.53%. The company said it will sell its 50% interest in the Australian Bulk Alliance joint venture to Sumitomo. Medical devices maker Neovasc Inc. plummeted 6.58% even after reporting significantly narrower full-year consolidated net loss of $0.18 basic loss per share compared to $2.95 basic loss per share in the prior year period. Petroleum and natural gas explorer NuLoch Resources nosedived 13.73% despite it swung to profit in fourth quarter, reporting net earnings of $0.02 per share, compared to a loss of $0.01 per share in the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, oil and gas explorer Gale Force Petroleum rallied 20%. The company announced the closure of $1.74 million private placement. Coal miner CIC Energy moved up 5.11%. Notably, the company slipped into the red in first-quarter, reporting net loss of $0.06 per share compared with a net profit of $0.01 per share in the prior-year period. Natural gas focused energy trust Paramount Energy Trust edged up 0.21% after it said that it has agreed to sell three non-core properties for total proceeds of $34.1 million. Biotechnology company Thallion Pharmaceuticals gained 3.45% after reporting a narrower net loss of $0.08 per share for the first quarter of 2010, compared to $0.10 per share in the year-ago quarter. The company attributed this to reductions in R&D expenses. In economic news, Statistics Canada said Tuesday the nation's trade surplus grew by a larger-than-expected $1.40 billion in February, as exports were up by 2.8% to $34.02 billion, while imports increased 0.9% to $32.62 billion. In other report, the agency said the price of Canadian new homes grew by 0.1% in February from the earlier month and was up by 0.9% year-over-year. The Canadian dollar slipped 0.14 cents to 99.58 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET All but one of the 14 TSX subgroups were lower. Metals and mining stocks weighed most heavily, 1.8%, followed by materials, off 1.4%, and gold, down 1.3%. Real-estate issues moved 0.2% higher to cut through some of the gloom. The TSX Venture Exchange collapsed 21.93 points by noon to 1,651.74, but the Nasdaq Canada index moved 4.65 points higher to 788.41. ON WALLSTREET In New York, Treasurys were mixed Tuesday as bond investors had little economic news to go on other than a dip in the stock market. The Dow Jones industrial average had fallen 15.72 points by noon to 10,990.25. The S&P 500 index shaved off 4.80 points to 1,191.68, while the Nasdaq composite lost 4.75 points to 2,453.12. Stocks opened lower as investors mulled over a mixed earnings report from Alcoa, the first of many major companies' quarterly earnings reports due out during the next few weeks. Wall Street will closely watch earnings from Intel after the close Tuesday, as well as JPMorgan Chase on Wednesday, and Google and Bank of America later in the week. Economically speaking, the government reported a larger-than-expected increase in the U.S. trade gap for February. The nation's international trade deficit in goods and services increased to $39.7 billion U.S. in February from a revised $37 billion U.S. in January, the Commerce Department said. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com were expecting the gap to widen to $38.5 billion U.S. The deficit expanded as exports totaled $143.2 billion U.S., while imports reached $182.9 billion U.S. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuiry note rose 2/32 to 98-9/32, driving the yield down to 3.84%. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. The price of a barrel of oil slid $1.33 to $83.02 U.S. Gold prices moved down $12 to $1,150 U.S. an ounce.