Early slide for TSX

All subgroups lose ground

Apr. 19, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --

Bay Street stocks opened sharply lower Monday amid falling commodities prices. Commodities fell after regulatory probes on Goldman Sachs widened to Europe. The S&P/TSX Composite Index had tumbled 99.82 points in the early going to 11,970.84 Worries over the impact of fraud charges on Goldman hampered stock markets across Asia and Europe Monday. Traders may overlook encouraging quarterly earnings report from Citigroup that bet analysts' estimates. Financial stocks may be in play amid mixed news. Citigroup Inc. said Monday it earned $0.14 per share in first quarter, as against the Street estimates for a breakeven. Earlier, last week, Bank of America and JP Morgan reported encouraging quarterly earnings that bet consensus estimates. Friday, the SEC accused Goldman Sachs of defrauding investors by misstating and omitting key facts about a financial product tied to sub-prime mortgages. In corporate news from Canada, Insurance solutions provider Kingsway Financial Services announced that its President and CEO Colin Simpson will resign on June 30. Branded online betting games and Internet casino software provider CryptoLogic Ltd. said that arbitration proceedings have been formally commenced by its unit, WagerLogic Ltd., against Marvel Enterprises Inc. and Marvel Enterprises B.V., TD Bank, a subsidiary in the TD Bank Financial Group, announced that it has acquired certain assets and liabilities of Riverside National Bank of Florida, First Federal Bank of North Florida and AmericanFirst Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, effective immediately. Norex Exploration Services and Tesla Exploration announced that they have completed their previously announced business combination, through a share exchange transaction under which Tesla shareholders exchanged each common share of Tesla held, on an exempt takeover bid basis, for 8.4333 common shares of Norex. Precious metal explorer KWG Resources announced that it has closed a second tranche of non-brokered private placement through the sale of FT units at $0.125 each for proceeds of approximately $2.8 million. Independent energy company Excelsior Energy said it has entered into an agreement to privately place about 41.67 million units at $0.36 per unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $15.0 million. Medical industry services provider Med BioGene reported a narrower loss of $0.04 per share in 2009, compared to $0.06 per share in last year. Gold producer LNG Energy said it has entered into an agreement with InterOil Corp. to buy 2D seismic on LNG's 100% working interest PPL 319 in Papua New Guinea In economic news, Statistics Canada said foreign investments in Canadian securities were up by $6.7 billion in February. Meanwhile, Canadian acquired $3.9 billion of foreign debt and equities in February. The Canadian dollar dipped 0.47 cents to 98.22 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET All 14 TSX subgroups went south in the first hour of trading. Metals and mining stocks sank 2%, while materials dipped 1.4%, and global base metals slipped 1.3%. The TSX Venture Exchange skidded 16.46 points to 1,650.38, while the Nasdaq Canada index tumbled 8.03 points to 784.72. ON WALLSTREET In New York, stocks inched upward early Monday amid Citi's impressive quarterly results, even as investors remained rattled about fraud charges brought against Goldman Sachs. Soon after Monday's opening bell, the Dow Jones industrial average picked up 11.04 points to 11,029.70. The S&P 500 index eked upward 0.38 points to 1,192.51; likewise, the Nasdaq composite index gained 0.38 points to 2,481.64. U.S. stocks sank Friday after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Goldman with defrauding investors. The blue-chip Dow lost 1.1% while the broader S&P 500 plunged 1.6%. Financial shares fell across the board Friday on news of the charges against Goldman. Shares of Goldman Sachs plunged nearly 13%. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America both lost about 5%. Citigroup reported quarterly profits that blew past Wall Street estimates, but the company's chief executive offered a cautious outlook. Citi said it earned $4.4 billion U.S., or 15 cents U.S. per share, in the first three months of 2010. That compares with a loss of 18 cents U.S. in the first quarter of 2009. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected Citi to report earnings per share of breakeven in the first quarter. Despite the strong results, Citi CEO Vikram Pandit said in a statement that the company's performance may not "follow an invariable trend-line upward." After the closing bell, IBM is due to release quarterly results. The Dow component is expected to post earnings per share of $1.93 U.S., up from $1.70 U.S. a year earlier. About 25% of the S&P 500, or 123 companies, are due to report results this week, including 11 Dow components. S&P 500 earnings are currently expected to have risen 39% from a year ago, according to the latest from Thomson Reuters. Revenues are on track to have risen 10% from a year ago. The index of leading economic indicators, a predictor of the economy's future performance, is on tap. The Conference Board, a business research group, is expected to say the index rose to 1% in March from 0.1% the month before, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com. Toyota will pay a $16.4-million U.S. fine for failing to notify the Department of Transportation about a defect in its cars, according to a senior Transportation Department official. Prices for U.S. Treasurys slipped bit, with the yield on the 10-year note gained to 3.78% from Friday's 3.77%. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions The price of a barrel of oil slid $2.03 to $81.21 U.S. Gold prices let go of four dollars to $1,133 U.S. an ounce.