Positive day for stocks

About this update from Precision Drilling Corporation

Canada manufacturing numbers in Dec. 16, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) -- After opening higher on Wednesday, Bay Street stocks continued to move higher into positive territory helped by gains seen across the board. The S&P/TSX Composite index was solidly ahead by noon hour, tacking on 143.57 points, or 1.2% to 11,684.51. Gold stocks attracted investor attention, after the price of the precious metal jumped in the commodities market. Encouraging housing starts figures from the US also lifted investor sentiment Gold and Material indexes were the major gainers. ALMOS Gold jumped 5.97%, SEMAFO. Inc. rallied 4.34%, followed by Gold Corp., which added 3.24%. Bank of Nova Scotia gained 0.98%, on news that the bank is among the bidders for a stake Siam City Bank PCL, Thailand's seventh-biggest bank. Potash Corp. gained 1.06%, after the company announced that it had entered into a $2.5-billion revolving term credit facility. Crescent Point Energy was up 0.43%, after it announced that it entered into an agreement with Penn West Energy Trust to acquire certain assets in southwest Saskatchewan. Penn West soared 2.18%. On the other hand, Precision Drilling was down 0.54% after announcing it had set aside $75 million for capital expenditure for decommissioning a number of its rigs. On the economic front, Canadian manufacturing sales rose more than expected in November, led by higher sales of petroleum and aerospace products. Statistics Canada said manufacturing sales advanced 2.0% in October to $42.5 billion, smashing the forecasts of economists, who were predicting a sales increase of 0.5% over the previous month. The Canadian dollar gained 0.23 cents to 94.48 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET All but one of the 14 TSX subgroups gained ground. Information technology and metals and mining issues vied for top spot, surging 2.4% each, while gold gained 2.1%. The lone laggard was health-care, whose stocks slid 0.5%. The TSX Venture Exchange shot upward 16.59 points to 1,438.64, while the Nasdaq Canada index added 13.87 points to 711.54 ON WALLSTREET In New York, stocks jumped Wednesday as investors awaited the latest pronouncement on the economy from the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrials picked up 35.37 points by midday to 10,487.37, while the S&P 500 grew 6.98 points to 1,114.91, but the Nasdaq gained 15.30 points by noon to 2,216.35. The U.S. central bank will release its final policy statement of the year around 2:15 p.m. ET at the end of a two-day meeting. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold the fed funds rate, a key overnight bank lending rate, unchanged at historic lows near 0%, the level at which the rate has stood for a year. But the statement could provide hints as to when the Fed plans to raise interest rates, either next year or in 2011. The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday it is suing Intel for anticompetitive practices against its rivals. Intel shares opened slightly lower. The European Union decided to drop antitrust charges against software maker Microsoft after it agreed to allow computer makers to install competing software. Stocks showed little reaction to economic indicators released early Wednesday. This includes the Commerce Department's release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of consumer inflation. November CPI rose 0.4% after climbing 0.2% the previous month, matching expectations. Core CPI was unchanged from the prior month, compared to the expected gain of 0.1% for November, according to a Briefing.com consensus. The weekly crude oil inventory report from the Energy Information Administration said stockpiles decreased by 3.7 million barrels last week. The Commerce Department released a pair of housing market indicators in the morning as well. Housing starts increased to a 574,000-annual-unit rate in November from a revised 527,000-unit-annual-rate in October, matching expectations from Briefing.com consensus. Building permits, a measure of builder confidence, rose to a 584,000-unit annual rate in November, which was more than the 570,000 rate forecast by Briefing.com consensus. Treasury prices nosed up, lowering yields on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.56% from Tuesday's 3.59%. Prices and yields move in opposite directions. The price of a barrel of oil gained $2.36 to 73.05 cents U.S. Gold prices jacked up $15 to $1,138 an ounce U.S.

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