Bad week, bad ending

Mar. 6, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --

04:30 pm EST Indexes in New York managed to shake off the impact of job loss figures announced Friday, and recover some ground it had lost most of the week. Toronto betrayed some nerves, however.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index veered 18.84 lower at the close to 7,610.33, lows it hasn't seen since 2003.

Many analysts believe there is little keeping stocks from falling even further as worries about the automotive and financial sectors continue to weigh on investors.

In the Toronto financial sector, CIBC shed 40 cents to $37.46.

The Bank of Nova Scotia has taken a majority interest in Five Continents Financial Ltd., an asset management firm in the Cayman Islands. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Scotiabank shares were down 36 cents to $25.85.

In the TSX energy sector, Suncor Inc. rose 94 cents to $27.15 and Canadian Natural Resources gained 34 cents to $40.85.

The base metals sector rose, as Teck Cominco Ltd. improved 29 cents to $3.71.

Quadra Mining Ltd. shares rose 17 cents to $3.76 after it reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $126.1 million U.S. compared to a year-earlier profit of $5.5 million. Revenues were negative $7.1 million compared to $81.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2007 as a result of plunging copper prices which led to negative price adjustments in the second half of 2008.

Among gold stocks, Goldcorp Inc. advanced 65 cents to $37.80.

Market heavyweights exerting pressure on the TSX included Research In Motion Ltd., down $2.47 to $46.35, Potash Inc. declined $4.60 to $84.94 while Bombardier Inc. fell 14 cents to $2.40.

Canadian autoparts maker Linamar Corp. has cut its quarterly dividend in half. The Ontario-based company reported a fourth-quarter loss Thursday and said it would pay a quarterly dividend of three cents per share, down from six cents in the previous quarter. Linamar shares fell 29 cents to $2.71.

SNC Lavalin Group Inc. reported fourth-quarter net income of $75 million, compared with a net income of $68.7 million for the same period in 2007. For all of 2008, the engineering giant reports $312.5 million in net income, compared with $153.2 million in 2007. SNC also announced a 25% increase to quarterly dividends. Its shares climbed 85 cents to $29.50.

Industrial waste management services provider Newalta Inc. said today it was cutting its dividend by 14 cents to five cents after reporting a drop in profits for both the most recent quarter and fiscal year. The company cited volatile markets and weak commodity prices and its shares slipped 63 cents to $3.07.

The Canadian dollar picked up 0.04 cents, to 77.62 cents U.S.

BAYSTREET Of the 13 TSX sub-groups, 10 had ventured into the red by the end of the day. Health-care stocks led the way down, 4.2% off, followed by real-estate stocks, down 3.1% and information technology, swooning 2.7%.

Metals and mining tried to brighten the mood by gaining 0.7%, consumer staples and energy stocks each picked up 0.5%

The TSX Venture Exchange was 2.71 points down, at 826.98, while the Nasdaq Canada index dunked 16.09 points to 372.56

ON WALLSTREET The Dow Jones industrial average veered lower Friday, but managed to recover some dignity to end the week, 32.5 points worth, to 6,626.94

The S&P 500 index inched ahead 0.84 to 683.39 while the Nasdaq composite index sank 5.74 to 1,293.85.

Apple Inc. was a drag on the Nasdaq after analysts at JP Morgan recently lowered their price target for the company. Apple shares fell $4.94 to $83.90 U.S.

U.S. bank Wells Fargo & Co. shares climbed 10 cents to $8.25 U.S. after slashing its quarterly dividend 85%, to five cents a share from 34 cents, in an effort to save $5 billion U.S. But JPMorgan Chase declined $1.01 to $15.59 U.S.

Dow component Citigroup again struggled around the $1 U.S. per share mark.

Fellow Dow stock General Motors plunged another 22%, after touching a 75-year low earlier in the session.

Friday, word came out from the U.S. Labor Department that the economy shed 651,000 jobs last month - just slightly above expectations - while the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 8.1% from 7.6% in January.

Revised data released Friday show U.S. job losses in December totaled 681,000, against the original 577,000 figure, while 655,000 jobs were lost in January, not the 598,000 originally reported. Many market participants, however, had braced for even grimmer data, shorting stocks earlier in the week. To short a stock means to bet it will fall.

Dow component Coca-Cola said Friday it will invest an additional $2 billion U.S. in China over the next three years. That's in addition to a $2.4 billion U.S. bid for a Chinese juice maker that's being reviewed by the Beijing government.

Treasury prices fell, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.87% from 2.81% Thursday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The April crude contract in New York rose $1.18 to $44.79 U.S. a barrel.

The April bullion contract in New York moved up $14.90 to $942.70 U.S. an ounce.