Dec. 29, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --
Toronto stocks are seeing moderate weakness at noon Tuesday as traders returned from a four-day holiday weekend. Weakness in the gold and materials sectors has led the market lower. At midday, the S&P/TSX Composite index was down 57.69 points to 11,696.92. Gold stocks are down, as Goldcorp has dropped 3.4% as Minera Penmont has boosted its offer to acquire Canplats Resources to $4.80 per share in a deal worth about $277 million, topping an offer from Goldcorp. International Royalty Corp. is down 0.2% after its board unanimously recommended shareholders reject a hostile $640-million bid from Franco-Nevada Corp. The company said it believed the $749-million offer by Royal Gold to be superior. Franco-Nevada shares have dropped 1.7%, while Royal Gold is down 2.1%. Corriente Resources has soared 12.3% after the company agreed to $679-million takeover by CRCC-Tongguan Investment Co. Wesdome Gold Mines has dropped 2.6% after the company announced the resignation of Rowland Uloth as President and Chief Executive Officer. Boralex is up 2.7% after the company and its new European partner Cube Infrastructure Fund announced the acquisition of three wind farms in France. The total investment for the transaction amounted to approximately $115 million. TSO3 has gained 2.6% after the company said it has filed supporting technical documentation to the U.S. Regulatory Agency and to the European Notified Body, in order to obtain clearance to export the STERIZONE 125L+ Sterilizer to these markets. WestJet has dropped 1.3% after a failed terrorist attack on a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day raised safety worries. The Canadian dollar was up 0.05 cents at 95.99 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET All but one of the 14 TSX subgroups were lower, gold tailing off 2%, followed by materials, down 1.8% and health-care issues, 0.9% to the bad. The one gainer was consumer staples, and that group was up by 0.3%. The TSX Venture Exchange gained 7.18 points to 1,477.04, while the Nasdaq Canada index slid 2.49 points to 733.18. ON WALLSTREET In New York, stocks sputtered Tuesday near midday as investors struggled to extend a six-session, year-end winning streak that has left the major indexes at their highest point since the fall of 2008. The Dow Jones Industrials was up 11.86 points to 10,558.94, while the broader S&P 500 was off 0.47 points to 1,127.31, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq backpedaled 2.74 points to 2,288.34. Stocks managed slim gains Monday, with the Dow and S&P 500 ending at the highest levels since Oct. 1, 2008 and the Nasdaq ending at the highest point since Sept. 3, 2008. Trading volume is expected to be light this week, with many market pros taking some or all of the holiday-shortened trading week off. All financial markets are closed Friday for New Year's Day and many participants will cut out early Thursday ahead of New Year's Eve. Most market pros closed the books earlier this month, with investors looking to end a jarring year on a high note. Year-to-date, as of Monday's close, the Dow has risen 20%, the S&P 500 has risen 25% and the Nasdaq has risen 45%. All three indexes are up more substantially since falling to multi-year lows on March 9 amid the height of the financial crisis. Next year is not expected to be as robust, most analysts say, as investors look for evidence that economic growth can continue without the copious amount of government assistance that provided a buffer and eventual springboard in 2009. In particular, investors will be looking for signs that housing is still improving, that consumers are spending again, and that the labour market is healing and enough jobs are being added to drive down the unemployment rate. Consumer confidence rose in November, the Conference Board reported Tuesday, although the rise was shy of expectations. Confidence rose to 52.9 from 50.6 previously. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought it would rise to 53. Separately, a report showed home prices flattened out in October after rising for fourth months in a row. The S&P/Case Shiller index of prices in 20 of the largest metropolitan areas was unchanged in October from the previous month. Prices were down 7.3% from a year ago, versus analysts' forecasts for a drop of 7.1%. Treasury prices were flat, keeping yields on the benchmark 10-year note at Monday's 3.84%. The price of a barrel of oil lost 12 cents to $78.65 U.S. Gold prices slipped $10 to $1,098 an ounce U.S.