Feb. 25, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
Toronto's main index trimmed losses by mid-morning Thursday after opening significantly lower, with financials and gold stocks leading the fight back even as energy stocks remained subdued amid sliding oil prices and a firm greenback.
The S&P/TSX composite index was off 7.60 points by midday to 11,514.23.
The Energy Index shed some of its strength, as Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. lost 1.58% and Encana Corp. was down 0.76%.
Suncor Energy, which announced the sale of its natural gas assets in Trinidad and Tobago to British energy company Centrica PLC for approximately $380 million U.S., was down 2.08%.
The Financials Index gained momentum, as Bank of Montreal was up 1.74%.
Canadian Imperial Bank which reported a surge in first-quarter earnings to $652 million from $147 million in the prior-year quarter, rose 1.96%.
National Bank of Canada gained 0.87%, after reporting a substantial increase in first-quarter net income to $215 million from $69 million in the comparable quarter.
The Gold Index moved up, with Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. up 1.88%, Yamana Gold Inc. up 2.07% and Goldcorp Inc. up 1.69%.
Bombardier Inc. soared 6.39% after the company revealed securing a $3-billion-U.S. purchase order for 40 of its CS300 jetliners from Republic Airways Holdings Inc.
The Health Care Index was down, with SXC Health Solutions Corp. down 1.77%.
Biovail Corp. eased 0.46%. The pharmaceutical company had reported a decline in its fourth-quarter net income to $73.0 million U.S. from $120.4 million U.S. in the year-ago quarter.
Lundin Mining Corp. which reported a turnaround to profit in fourth quarter 2009, with net income of $35.1 million U.S. compared to net loss of $728.5 million U.S. last year, shed 1.14%.
The Canadian dollar subsided 1.14 cents to 93.70 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 14 TSX subgroups, nine were negative by noon. Metals and mining took the biggest hit, at 1.6%, followed by global base metals and utilities, sinking 1.5% each.
The three gainers were headed by gold, up 2%, followed by materials, progressing 0.8%, and financials, ahead 0.5%.
The TSX Venture Exchange fell back 10.49 points to 1,508.92, while the Nasdaq Canada index slipped 12.19 points to 733.75.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks tumbled Thursday after a worse-than-expected jobless claims report and new worries about Greece's debt problems rattled investors.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 172.23 points, or 1.7%, by noon to 10,201.93. The S&P 500 index stumbled 16.96 points to 1,088.28, and the Nasdaq composite subtracted 33.44 points to 2,202.46.
Stocks tumbled out of the gate after both Standard & Poor's and Moody's said they may have to cut Greece's debt rating if the country doesn't implement its so-called austerity measures, meant to rein in its deficit.
Greece has said it will raise the retirement age and have civil servants take bonus cuts, among other measures. But a workers' strike Wednesday added to questions about the nation's ability to cut its debt.
The threat of a Greek default rattled global markets earlier in the month, pushing U.S. stocks to three-month lows and causing the S&P 500 to lose over 9%, just shy of the technical definition of a correction. Investors worried that Greece's problems could reflect a broader euro zone debt crisis that could impact Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy and other debt-challenged European nations.
But European officials said that they were ready to step in and help if need be, and that seemed to calm investors for a few weeks. S&P and Moody's downgrade talk revived the worries.
In addition, stocks have been rising for the last two weeks, setting the market up for a little pullback.
Stocks jumped Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke again pledged to keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future, reassuring investors worried about the outlook for the economy.
He was speaking before the House Financial Services Committee as part of his semiannual testimony before Congress. On Thursday, he spoke to the Senate Banking Committee, essentially repeating the same message.
Coca-Cola has agreed to buy the North America operations of its biggest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises, in a deal worth about $12 billion U.S., including nearly $9 billion U.S. in assumed debt.
On the economic front, the Labor Department released its weekly jobless claims report before the opening bell on Thursday.
Initial jobless claims surged to 496,000 in the week ended Feb. 20. That's much more than the 460,000 claims projected by a consensus of economist opinion from Briefing.com. It's also much larger than the revised tally of 474,000 claims reported for the prior week.
Also, the Census Bureau released its monthly report on orders for durable goods, a barometer for manufacturing that rose much more than expected.
Orders for durable goods rose 3% in January, the government reported. The orders were expected to have risen 1.5%, according to Briefing.com consensus.
With employment still weak, investors were reassured that the Fed was unlikely to raise short-term interest rates anytime soon.
The Fed chief is scheduled to appear before a Senate panel Thursday, basically repeating the testimony he gave to the House panel.
Treasury prices moved up, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 3.64% from 3.69% late Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil backpedaled $2.81 to $77.19 U.S.
Gold prices faded two dollars to $1,095 U.S.