Apr. 5, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
Canadian stocks are likely to hold on to their recent gains Monday morning as crude continued its charge above $85 U.S. a barrel. The S&P/TSX Composite Index picked up 21 points soon after the opening bell to 12,172.06. Moreover, traders will factor in the encouraging jobs data from the U.S. released on Good Friday, which cemented hopes that the world's largest economy is on its recovery path. In corporate news, Bombardier Inc. said Thursday that it will repurchase 0.21% each of its Class A and Class B shares. Investment management company CI Financial reported gross retail sales of $1.1 billion and net sales of $243 million for the month of March. Assets under management at March 31, 2010 were $68.1 billion, an increase of $1.8 billion or 2.7% over the month. Mineral explorer Conway Resources said it is negotiating a private placement for a maximum of 10 million units, for a maximum amount of $500,000 Minerals property company International Tower Hill Mines announced the closing of the first tranche of its non-brokered financing of five million common shares of the company at a price of $6.00 per common share. Agnico-Eagle Mines said Thursday that it will acquire all of the shares of Comaplex Minerals Corp. that it does not already own. Wireless services solutions provider WebTech Wireless announced the closure of non-brokered private placement to certain members of senior management and the company's Board of Directors for nearly $500,000 With no major economic data on tap from Canada, traders will focus on the movements of commodities prices to get clues for today's trading. The Canadian dollar continued its push toward parity with its American counterpart, gaining 0.55 cents to 99.49 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET Eight of the 14 TSX subgroups started the day off lower, if only slightly so. Gold was off 0.3%, followed by materials and consumer staples, sliding 0.2% each. The gainers were led by energy, up 0.7%, while the metals and mining group vied with real-estate for the runner-up position, up 0.3%. The TSX Venture Exchange advanced 10.30 points to 1,612.84, while the Nasdaq Canada index gave back 3.46 points to 761.02. ON WALLSTREET In New York, U.S. stocks were poised for early gains Monday, as traders returning from the long weekend took a positive view of the latest news on the jobs front. The Dow Jones industrial average added 3.85 points, at the opening bell to 10,930.92. The S&P 500 tacked on 1.29 points to 1,179.39. The Nasdaq grew 2.32 points to 2,404.90. U.S. stocks ended a shortened week on an upbeat note last week. The Dow and S&P finished at 18-month highs on Thursday. U.S. markets were closed for Good Friday. When trading began Monday, investors had their first opportunity to react to the U.S. Department of Labor's March employment report that came out Friday. The report showed that employers added 162,000 jobs last month after shedding 14,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.7%. In addition to the jobs report, investors were also encouraged by strong sales estimates for Apple's iPad, which launched Saturday amid much frenzy. With the job market showing signs of improvement, investors are now looking to the corporate sector for direction. The quarterly earnings period gets underway next week when Alcoa reports first-quarter results. Investors will also take in on Monday a report on pending home sales for February, as well as the Institute for Supply Management's services sector index. The February pending home sales index comes out after the opening bell. The index is expected to have fallen 1% after a 7.6% decline the month before, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com. At the same time, the ISM services index is forecast to rise to a reading of 53.6 from 50 the month before. Any reading over 50 indicates expansion in the sector. Treasury prices plummeted, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.96% from Thursday's 3.86%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions. The price of a barrel of oil gained 84 cents to $85.72 U.S. Gold prices gained four dollars to $1,131 U.S. an ounce.
