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Feb. 10, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --
12:25 pm EST
Telecoms and utilities pulled Toronto markets down by triple digits by midday Wednesday, after Tuesday's dramatic selloff.
The TSX was also pressured by energy stocks, which retreated alongside oil prices, and a loss posted by Rogers Communications.
The S&P TSX Composite Index plunged 168.13 points to 8,210.57.
New York markets were little changed ahead of an announcement by U.S. President Barack Obama to deal with the home foreclosure crisis.
The Toronto financial sector was off after falling 6% Tuesday as investors worry about the global financial system. In recent days, investor fears have been focused on the ability of banks in Eastern Europe to repay or roll over $400 billion U.S. this year. The banks have borrowed $1.7 trillion U.S., much on short-term maturities.
CIBC fell $1.49 to $42.11, as Royal Bank lost $1.02 to $27.13 while insurer Manulife Financial fell 81 cents to $14.86.
The TSX energy sector was down as oil prices stabilized. EnCana Corp. declined $1.69 to $49.61 and Petro-Canada gave back 98 cents to $26.32.
Mining stocks also dragged with the base metals sector down. Teck Cominco Ltd. lost 47 cents to $3.97 after it said Tuesday it is looking at all options reduce a suffocating debt load largely acquired when it paid $14 billion U.S. for Fording Canadian Coal Trust last fall.
Rogers Communications Inc. shares fell $2.76 or 8% to $31.59 after it said a decrease in the value of its television division generated impairment charges that propelled the company to a fourth-quarter loss of $138 million.
The result marks a sharp drop from a profit of $254 million recorded in the same quarter a year earlier.
Grocery chain operator Loblaw Companies Ltd. posted fourth-quarter profit of $188 million, up from a year-earlier $40 million, as sales jumped 11%, helped by one-time gains and an extra week in the accounting period.
Sales rose to $7.75 billion from $6.97 billion and its shares moved 25 cents lower to $33.15.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.30 cents to 79.37 cents U.S.
BAYSTREET
All of the 13 TSX sub-groups remained in negative territory by noon. Utilities were the main culprit, down 3.2%, followed by telecoms, off 2.8%, and metals and mining, off a bit less.
The TSX Venture Exchange stumbled 1.33 points to 917.83 while the NASDAQ Canada index picked up 3.88 points, to 464.40
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones industrials index was 30.43 points ahead, to 7,583.03, climbing out of Tuesday's rubble. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 3.13 points to 792.30, while the NASDAQ composite index climbed 10.49 points at 1,481.15
A day after signing a massive $787-billion U.S. stimulus plan into law, Obama plans to tackle the foreclosure crisis with a $75-billion program that would prevent up to nine million Americans from losing their homes.
Obama was expected to offer government cash to mortgage companies that reduce interest rates – and therefore monthly payments – for homeowners in danger of default.
What remained unclear was how the government will decide who qualifies for relief.
The announcement of mortgage relief will come just after data showed construction of new homes in the U.S. plunged to a record low in January as all parts of the country showed big declines in building activity.
The Commerce Department says construction of new homes and apartments dropped 16.8% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 466,000 units, well below the 530,000 units economists expected, and was the slowest pace on records dating back a half-century.
Applications for building permits also dropped to a record low.
Also, the Federal Reserve reported that U.S. industrial production fell 1.8% last month, worse than the 1.5% slide that economists expected.
General Motors Corp. and Chrysler have filed restructuring plans with the U.S. government that call for an additional $39 billion U.S. of aid. The two automakers have already received $17.4 billion U.S.
The requests, made in government-required restructuring plans filed Tuesday, were accompanied by plans for thousands more job cuts, slashing of models and brands, union concessions and the prospect of even further expense cuts.
GM shares climbed five cents to $2.13 U.S.
Treasury prices slipped, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.69% from 2.65% Tuesday.
U.S. light crude oil for March delivery fell nine cents to $34.84 U.S. a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
COMEX gold for April delivery rose $2.50 to $970 U.S. an ounce.