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Jan. 14, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
After edging higher at the open, Toronto stocks were struggling to sustain any direction in morning deals Thursday, amid mixed earnings news from Canadian companies. Also, relatively discouraging retail sales and jobs data from south of the border weighed on sentiment.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index faced noon off 60.62 points to 11,792.94.
Canadian stocks have been reflecting weakness since briefly rising above the 12,000 mark for the first time since 2008 on Monday. Weakness in commodity prices has put pressure on oil and gold stocks.
The Gold Index was down, as Goldcorp lost 1.06% after Barrick Gold said it will sue to halt Goldcorp's planned acquisition of a 70% stake in El Morro copper-gold project in Chile. Barrick Gold also eased 1.22%.
Kirkland Lake Gold slipped 2.86% after reports said the company will sell at least 2.4 million units at $8.25.
On the other hand, SouthGopi Energy rose 1.42% on news that China Investment Corp and Temasek Holding will subscribe $50 million each to the company's $387 million initial public offering in Hong Kong.
Energy stocks edged higher, despite weaker crude prices that were struggling to move past the $80 U.S. mark.
Baytex Energy gained 1.35% and Imperial Oil was up 0.42%.
Telecommunication service provider Shaw Communications edged down 0.5% after reporting lower earnings of $0.26 a share in first quarter, compared to $0.29 in the year ago period.
Clothing and accessories retailer West 49 Inc. slipped 4% after it said its net sales for the five-week period ended January 2, 2010 increased 5.7% to $36.8 million from a year-ago period.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.57 cents to 97.57 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but three of the 14 TSX subgroups were lower by noon. Gold was the chief loser, off 1.4%, materials were down 1.2%, and industrials were off 0.8%.
The three gainers were information technology, up 1.6%, while health-care and consumer discretionaries gained 0.1% each.
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 0.71 points to 1,592.50, while the Nasdaq Canada index added 11.22 points to 742.10.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks inched higher near midday Thursday as investors set aside worse-than-expected reports on retail sales and jobless claims and opted to scoop up select shares.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 11.64 points by noon to 10,692.41. The S&P 500 picked up 0.29 points to 1.145.97, and the Nasdaq added 4.76 points to 2,312.66.
Stocks managed gains Wednesday, with the Dow closing at a 15-month high, as investors looked past Google's potential shutdown of its China operations and mea culpas from the nation's major bank executives.
After a weak start Thursday morning, stocks mustered up some slim gains heading into midday, despite they day's mixed economic news.
The major indexes posted sizable gains last year as investors dove back in after moving beyond the worst financial crisis in decades. But any gains this year are likely to be more subdued.
Economically speaking, retail sales dropped 0.3% in December, according to the Census Bureau, which was much worse than expected.
Sales were expected to have risen 0.5% in December, according to a consensus of economist expectations from Briefing.com. That would compare to the upwardly revised gain of 1.8% in the prior month.
The Labor Department reported that weekly jobless claims rose more than expected. Initial jobless claims jumped to 444,000 in the week ended Jan. 9. That's more than the expected increase to 436,000.
A panel investigating the financial crisis was holding a second day of hearings in Washington, with government officials such as Attorney General Eric Holder testifying.
On Wednesday, four top bank chief executives told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that they had made mistakes but that they didn't realize the error of their ways ahead of the financial crisis of 2008.
Dow component Intel is due to report quarterly results after the close tonight. The chipmaker is expected to have earned 30 cents U.S. per share versus a profit of four cents U.S. a year ago, according to analysts surveyed by earnings tracker Thomson Reuters.
Intel shares gained ahead of its results.
Overall, S&P 500 earnings are expected to have risen more than 200% from the previous year, the worst quarter in Thomson's history.
Treasury prices spiked, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 3.75% from Wednesday's 3.78%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil nipped up four cents to $79.73 U.S.
Gold prices lost a dollar to $1,136 U.S.