Mar. 19, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --
12:30 pm EST
Markets in Toronto managed to hold onto gains at noon Thursday, but their cousins in the States found their indexes sliding.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index was still ahead 61.37 points at 8,690.47, mostly on the strength of metals and mining stocks.
Statistics Canada says Canada's annual inflation rate rose to 1.4% in February from 1.1% the previous month. This was the first increase in the cost of living in five months.
The dramatic move by the U.S. central bank stoked worries about higher inflation and that helped send the TSX gold sector up, as Barrick Gold Corp. rose $1.48 to $41.33
Hopes the Fed action will also blunt the effects of a global recession also sent oil prices higher. Suncor Inc. climbed $2.10 to $33.30 and Canadian Natural Resources rose $2.69 to $51.74.
The base metal sector prospered and Teck Cominco Ltd. surged 80 cents or 16% to $5.80 and FNX Mining improved 57 cents to $5.30.
Financials were also stronger, as Manulife Financial gained 58 cents to $15.47 and Scotiabank declined 35 cents to $31.92.
The Canadian dollar was up 0.83 cents to 81.08 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 13 TSX subgroups, seven were lower, consumer staples weighing things down 2.4%, while financials and real-estate stocks both off 2.1%.
Metals and mining went skyward to lead the six subgroups in the black, advancing 9.1% in just one morning. Energy stocks chugged ahead 4.4% and materials were up 3.9%.
The TSX Venture Exchange was 19.84 points higher at midday, at 885.55, while the Nasdaq Canada index was 12.51 points up, at 433.25.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrials average took a header, decreasing 115.97 points to 7,370.61 7,502.67.
The much-broader S&P 500 subsided 12 points to 782.35, while the tech-laden Nasdaq stumbled 15.70 points to 1,475.52
The Fed's moves are aimed at driving down borrowing costs for everything from mortgages to credit cards.
The U.S. central bank also plans to buy some $750 billion U.S. in mortgage-backed securities, which would help revive the country's sagging housing market.
The move - which economists call "quantitative easing" - is aimed at effectively reducing market interest rates since the Fed's key rate, the federal funds rate, has been ratcheted down as low as it can go.
On the economic front, the U.S. Labor Department said the number of initial requests for unemployment insurance dropped to a seasonally adjusted 646,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 658,000, better than economists' expectations.
The news was somewhat mixed though as the number of people filing for more than a week set a new record for the eighth straight week, jumping 185,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 5.47 million.
Citigroup said Thursday it was pursuing a reverse stock split to help counter the conversion of the government's big preferred share stake into common stock. After initially rallying over 20%, shares turned higher.
Shares in business software firm Oracle Corp. were ahead $2.02 to $17.85 U.S. after the company said it earned $1.33 billion U.S. in its third quarter versus $1.34 billion U.S. in the year-ago period. It also declared its first dividend, a surprise move that comes as other bellwethers are cutting or suspending their dividends to save money.
Treasury prices gained, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.50% from 2.54% Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The April crude contract on the Nymex jumped $2.97 to $51.11 U.S. a barrel.
The April bullion contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange surging $58.60 to $947.70 U.S. an ounce.