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Feb. 8, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
Bay Street stocks regained some strength by midday Monday. Traders viewed today's upsurge in commodities prices as just a technical rebound after hitting their multi-month lows.
As traders got ready for lunch, the S&P/TSX Composite Index had picked up 34.06 points to 11,257.18.
Financial stocks were under pressure, with the G7 meeting failing to address the Greek debt problem. European finance ministers are yet to come up with new measures that would help tackle the budget deficits in some nations in Europe, opined analysts.
The price of oil and gold slipped back from their intraday highs.
The Gold Index declined, with Goldcorp. Inc. down 1.41% and Anglo Gold slipping 2.23%.
Among financials, Bank of Montreal slipped 0.25% and National Bank of Canada was down 0.52%.
Bombardier Inc lost 2.75% even after it said it has bagged an additional order for 48 TALENT 2 trains from Deutsche Bahn for $272 million.
Educational publisher McGraw-Hill Ryerson surrendered 0.64% despite reporting fourth quarter earnings of $1.83, up from $1.73 in the previous year.
Drug delivery company IntelGenx Corp. slipped 3.33% even after announcing the receipt of a Complete Response Letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its antidepressant CPI-300.
On the other hand, the Energy Index rose, with Encana Corp. adding 1.63%. Baytex Energy rose 1.05%.
Fertilizer maker Potash Corp added 0.40% and Agrium Inc. was up 0.70%, on news that demand for potash is picking up.
Canpotex Ltd. said it has reached an agreement with Sinofert on a spot sale of approximately 350,000 MT of Canadian potash at competitive prices.
With this the company is now fully committed on sales through the first quarter of 2010.
Canpotex is the offshore marketing company owned by the three Saskatchewan potash producing companies, Agrium Inc., Mosaic Canada Crop Nutrition, LP, a subsidiary of The Mosaic Company and Potash Corp.
In another report, Potash Corp. upped its stake in Israel Chemicals to 13.9% by adding 1.4% last week
Commercial forestry plantation operator Sino-Forest gained 0.44% after it said it has completed the acquisition of Mandra Forestry Holdings.
Information technology provider WebTech Wireless rose 5.36% after announcing that its real-time passenger information service was officially launched on February 4 by the Societe de Transport de Laval.
Logistic services provider Vitran Corp. rallied 8.8% after it said its fourth-quarter net loss narrowed to $0.14 per share from $5.85 per share in the prior year period.
Broadband wireless communications service provider Wi-LAN edged up 1.50% after it has signed a letter of intent to settle a lawsuit filed against it by TELUS.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners edged up 0.99%. The company slipped to loss in fourth-quarter reporting net loss of $0.10 per share compared with a profit of $0.55 per share in the prior year period.
In economic news, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said housing starts were up 5.8% in January to a seasonally adjusted 186,000 units. Economists expected the annual rate of starts to come in at about 180,000.
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.24 cents to 93.43 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
By noon, nine of the 14 TSX subgroups had advanced into positive territory. Metals and mining led the way, gaining 2.2%, followed by global base metals, ahead 1.2% and energy stocks, picking up 0.7%.
The five laggards were weighed by gold, down 0.7%, consumer staples, off 0.6%, and industrials, sagging 0.5%.
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 10.78 points to 1,466.19, while the Nasdaq Canada index subtracted 7.45 points to 720.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks were mixed in early Monday trading as investors remained jittery about Europe's lingering debt problems.
The Dow Jones industrial average was flat at noon to 10,012.61. The S&P 500 index regained 4.30 points to 1,070.49. The Nasdaq composite moved ahead 7.69 at 2,148.81.
Mounting debt concerns in Greece and Spain battered U.S. stocks last week amid worries about the outlook for the global economic recovery. After big losses early in the session, Wall Street finished higher Friday, thanks to a rally led by tech shares.
The dollar continued to gain against its major rivals Monday on European debt concerns, as comments from Group of Seven finance ministers over the weekend neglected to ease concerns about Greece.
Despite the stronger greenback, oil and gold prices rose slightly.
In addition to Europe's debt problems, traders are focused on the outlook for economic growth in the United States.
Later in the week, investors will look to reports on the U.S. trade balance, monthly retail sales figures and the government's weekly jobless claims data.
CIT Group tapped former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain over the weekend to lead the struggling small business lender as chairman and chief executive. CIT said Thain is right for the job as the company shifts into becoming a "more streamlined commercial lender."
Toyota Motor has told dealers that it is close to announcing a solution to the problems with the brake system of its Prius hybrid sedan. The troubled auto maker is expected to announce detail about the fix early this week.
Major corporations are due to report quarterly results this week, including Dow components Coca-Cola and Walt Disney on Tuesday, and Sprint Nextel on Wednesday.
With 314 companies, or 63% of the S&P 500, having reported results, earnings are on track to have climbed 206% versus a year ago and revenues to have risen 7%, according to the latest results from tracker Thomson Reuters.
The year-over-year jump is partly due to an abysmal fourth quarter of 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. Not surprisingly, financial companies are leading the recovery in quarterly results.
Treasury prices slid, thus raising the yield on the 10-year note to 3.59% from Friday's 3.56%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil gained 75 cents to $71.94 U.S.
Gold prices gained back $17 to $1,070 U.S.