Feb. 5, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
Succumbing under selling pressure for the second session, Canadian stocks lingered in the red in mid-morning deals Friday.
By noon, the S&P/TSX Composite Index slid another 81.90 points to 11,046.86.
The gauges of a majority of sectors were in negative terrain, with the heavily weighted financials and energy stocks turning in particularly poor performances.
Traders were digesting mixed cues from the employment numbers from both sides of the border. Moreover, concerns over the financial troubles in the countries in euro region also weighed on sentiment.
The prices of oil and gold edged down marginally, after huge selloffs in the previous session.
The Energy Index gave ground, as Baytex Energy surrendered 2.46% and Encana Corp was down 1.85%.
Among financials stocks, National Bank of Canada lost 1.20% and Canadian Imperial Bank slipped 0.51%.
Information technology play RDM Corp. surrendered 7.78% even after reporting a narrower loss.
The company said today its first-quarter net loss and comprehensive loss was down to $0.02 per share from $0.08 per share last year.
Full-service retail drug store operator Shoppers Drug Mart eased 0.14% to $42.78 after UBS trimmed the price target on the stock to $50 from $52.
Similarly, Fortis Inc. edged down 0.36% to $27.66 after its price target was trimmed by $1 to $30 at RBC.
Bucking the negative trend, commercial real estate company Brookfield Properties rose 3.79% after it said its fourth-quarter funds from operations increased to $222 million from $191 million in the year-ago period.
Open Text moved up 1.72% after it reported better earnings numbers yesterday.
Bombardier Aerospace gained 2.27% after announcing that it has delivered 302 aircraft for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2010 versus 349 aircraft deliveries made in the previous fiscal year 2008-09.
Canadian stock exchange operator TMX Group edged up 0.36% even after its price target was trimmed to $32 from $33 at RBC.
In economic news, Statistics Canada said the economy created more jobs in January than expected, with employment rising by 43,000 month, against the consensus estimates for a rise of 15,000.
With this, the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%.
The Canadian dollar settled back 0.12 cents to 93.11 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
As of midday Friday, all but three of the 14 TSX subgroups were lower. Energy stocks trailed yesterday's close by 1.9%, while metals and mining dropped 1.7%, and global base metals were off 1.1%.
The three stalwarts were information technology, up 0.7%, gold, eking out a gain of 0.2% and real-estate, inching ahead 0.1%.
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 14.92 points to 1,437.26, while the Nasdaq Canada index had regained 0.62 points to 712.50.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, equities were mixed late Friday morning as investors weighed a growing debt crisis in Europe with a report that showed more U.S. job losses despite a lower unemployment rate.
The Dow Jones industrial average subsided 55.62 points at noon to 9,946.56. The S&P 500 index lost 5.12 points to 1,057.99. The Nasdaq composite surrendered 2.91 points to 2,122.52.
Stocks plunged Thursday on worries that rising debt problems in Greece, Portugal and Spain could throw a wrench into any economic recovery in Europe, which would then impact the United States.
The Dow fell 2.6%, the S&P 500 lost 3.1% and the Nasdaq lost 3%. All three indexes closed at three-month lows.
Global markets continued to slide Friday, with Asian markets ending lower and European markets down in afternoon trading.
The debt woes continued to propel the U.S. dollar versus the euro, which fell to an eight-month low. The dollar also rose versus the yen. But the strength of the dollar had less of an impact on commodity prices Friday than it did earlier in the week, when it pummeled oil and gold prices as well as stocks.
Toyota's chief executive apologized Friday for the recall of eight million cars.
However, he did not announce a new recall of the popular Prius Hybrid, despite reports of brake problems.
Earlier, the company said it is also examining the brake systems of the Lexus hybrid vehicles since they used the same system as the 2010 Prius.
On the economic front, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy shed 20,000 jobs in January, which was worse than expected. However, the unemployment rate dipped to 9.7%, the lowest it has been since August 2009.
The government was expected to show a net gain of 15,000 jobs for the month, with an unemployment rate of 10%, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
Treasury prices went upward again, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 3.57% from Thursday's 3.59%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil fell $3 to $70.16 U.S.
Gold prices lost another $13 to $1,050 U.S.
