Mar. 31, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
Bay Street stocks were little changed in mid-morning deals Wednesday, with selling in financial stocks offsetting gains in commodities stocks. The S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 7.42 by noon time, to 12,036.79. Signs of a strong Canadian economic growth, with a surge in January GDP, helped lift sentiment. Meanwhile, mixed economic data from across the border and profit taking at higher levels capped big gains. Base metals stocks continued to attract buyers for a third straight session. Inmet Mining surged 4.77% after it announced the finalization of a $500-million equity financing through a subsidiary of a Singapore-based investment company. Teck Resources was up 0.86% to $44.55 after UBS hiked its price target on the stock to $50.50 from $44. Among gold stocks, Rand Gold rose 1.94% and Goldcorp added 0.69%. Food products maker GLG Life Tech rallied 7.24% after it turned to profit reporting fourth-quarter net income of $0.02 per share, compared to net loss of $0.40 per share last year. In the financial sector, CIBC gave in 1.13% and RBC was down 0.72%. Among IT stocks, Research In Motion lost 0.72%. The company is scheduled to announce its quarterly earnings after the markets close today. Open TXT shed 1.33%. Canadian National Railway eased 1.38%. The company said today that it had sold a key section of track to Metrolinx for $165.5 million. Base metals explorer Iberian Minerals lost 8.00% after it reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $0.20 per share, compared to a loss of $0.06 per share in the same period last year. Base metals miner Ivernia Inc. was down 3.92% despite reporting fourth-quarter net income of $0.01 per share, compared with a net loss of $0.41 per share in the same period last year. Telecommunications industry services provider EXFO Inc. surrendered 4.83% after reporting a lower second quarter net earnings of $0.02 per share, compared to $0.04 per share in the last year quarter. Analysts expected the company to report earnings of $0.07 per share. Toys and stationery company MEGA Brands slipped 2.00% after reporting a narrower fourth-quarter net loss of $0.60 per share compared to $8.83 per share in the prior year period. In economic news, Statistics Canada said the country's real gross domestic product advanced for a fifth straight month, rising 0.6% in January. It added that manufacturing increased 1.9% in January after a 1.2% advance in December. The Canadian dollar picked up 0.30 cents to 98.37 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET Of the 14 TSX subgroups, eight were lower by midday. Real-estate was down 0.8%, industrials fell 0.7%, while financials settled 0.6%. The five gainers were led by gold, up 0.9%, metals and mining, advancing 0.8%, and energy, picking up 0.5%. Health-care stocks were flat by noon. The TSX Venture Exchange picked up 2.16 points to 1,572.54. The Nasdaq Canada index shaved off 0.33 points to 806.08. ON WALLSTREET In New York, equities took a step backward Wednesday, the final day of a first quarter bolstered by a strong showing in March, after a disappointing jobs report and downbeat manufacturing data sacked investor confidence. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 13.08 points at the lunch break to 10,894.34. The S&P 500 index inched up 0.10 points to 1,173.37, while the tech-rich Nasdaq added 3.83 points to 2,414.52. Stocks ended slightly higher Tuesday, pushing the Dow to a fresh 18-month high as investors digested mixed reports showing a rise in consumer confidence and continued weakness in the housing market. Wall Street will reach the end of what has been a fairly solid March. Going into the final session, the Dow is up 5.7% this month, giving the index a 4.5% gain for the quarter. President Obama will announce plans later Wednesday to open large sections of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and an area off the Virginia coast for oil drilling. Economically speaking, ADP released its monthly report on employment before the opening bell, showing that private-sector employers cut 23,000 jobs in March. This was in sharp contrast to expectations of a 40,000-job increase, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com. This is after cutting a revised 24,000 in February. ADP has not reported an increase in monthly payroll numbers since January 2008, when 34,000 private-sector jobs were added. The Chicago PMI, a regional reading on manufacturing, was released shortly after the market opened and pushed equities further down. The index slipped to 58.8 in March from 62.6 the previous month. Economists predicted a smaller drop, to 61. Also, after the market opened, the Census Bureau reported factory orders for manufactured goods rose 0.6% in February, slightly higher than analysts' expectations but significantly less than January's 2.5% increase. The price of the benchmark 10-year note jumped, lowering the yield to 3.84% from Tuesday's 3.87%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions. The price of a barrel of oil gained 58 cents to $82.95 U.S. Gold prices hiked eight dollars to $1,114 U.S.
