Business
Monday misery
Monday misery
About this update from Verisante Technology, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\nMonday misery\n\nBig Blue pulls out of Sun deal\n Apr. 6, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) -- 12:40 pm EST\nStock markets were negative midmorning Monday as investors took some profits from a four-week-old rally amid the apparent collapse of IBM Corp.'s acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc.Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index tumbled 141.33 points lower by noon to 8,924.43The rally which started March 10, initially on good news from the American financial sector and bolstered since then by a string of positive economic data, had sent the TSX up 20% while the Dow is up about 22.5% since both hit multi-year lows on March 9. The TSX energy sector fell as oil prices retreated. Suncor Inc. gave back 57 cents to $29.22 while Canadian Natural Resources moved down 54 cents to $52.97.The gold sector was down, as Goldcorp Inc. faded $1.82 to $36.28.The base metals sector dipped, with Sherritt International down 10 cents to $3.37.Shares in Teck Cominco Ltd. moved up 30 cents to $8.75 after it announced it has sold an interest in the gold production at its Andacollo mine in Chile to Royal Gold. The Vancouver-based mining giant said the deal is valued at $300 million U.S.Sources told the Globe and Mail that the deal is one of several moves the company plans take in order to reduce its huge debt burden. It says the company will sell off more than $2 billion U.S. in asset sales, and mount a debt restructuring and a potential equity issue.Canada's largest base metals miner is struggling to reduce the enormous debt load it incurred from its top-of-the-market, $14-billion-U.S. takeover of Fording Canadian Coal Trust last year.Canadian investors also took in another deal gone bad. The takeover of Allen-Vanguard Corp. by Tailwind Financial in an all-stock deal worth $41.6 million has fallen through. The Ottawa-based maker of bomb disposal equipment and other military hardware said Monday another deal to take the company private is being considered and its shares were down half a cent to 15 cents.WestJet Airlines Ltd. shares were off 13 cents to $12.12 after the carrier said it filled 81.9% of its seats last month, down from a load factor of 86.6% in March 2008 which included Easter holiday travel.The airline reported Monday that it added 6.3% to its capacity over a year ago, to 1.52 billion available seat miles.Shares in Potash Corp. moved down $2.25 to $102....