Metals stocks lead losers
Apr. 19, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
Bay Street stocks were lingering in the red in mid-morning deals Monday amid falling commodities prices and on worries over the repercussions tied to the SEC charges against Goldman Sachs, a major player in commodities markets. The S&P/TSX Composite Index had tumbled 82.46 points by noon to 11,988.20 Also, China said over the weekend it would take more steps to level off real estate prices, which have been rising sharply for months. Friday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Goldman Sachs of defrauding investors by misstating and omitting key facts about a financial product tied to sub-prime mortgages. Among energy stocks, Cenovus Energy was down 3.88% and Suncor Energy slipped 3.59%. Independent energy company Excelsior Energy nosedived 8.93% after it said it has entered into an agreement to privately place about 41.67 million units at $0.36 per unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $15.0 million. Among gold stocks, Kinross Gold lost 2.37% and Goldcorp gave in 2.75%. Gold producer LNG Energy eased 1.18% after it said it has entered into an agreement with InterOil Corp. to buy 2D seismic on LNG's 100% working interest PPL 319 in Papua New Guinea Meanwhile, encouraging earnings reports from major banks from south of the border helped financial stocks to stay afloat in morning deals. Citigroup Inc. said Monday it earned $0.14 per share in first quarter, as against the Street estimates for a breakeven. Earlier last week, Bank of America and JP Morgan reported encouraging quarterly earnings that bet consensus estimates. TD Bank announced that it has acquired certain assets and liabilities of Riverside National Bank of Florida, First Federal Bank of North Florida and AmericanFirst Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), effective immediately. It also said it will consider more FIDC assisted acquisitions in Florida. TD Bank edged up 0.24%. Scotiabank and Bank of Montreal added around 0.50% each. Precious metal explorer KWG Resources rallied 8.70%. The company announced that it has closed a second tranche of non-brokered private placement through the sale of FT units at $0.125 each for proceeds of approximately $2.8 million. In economic news, Statistics Canada said foreign investments in Canadian securities were up by $6.7 billion in February. Meanwhile, Canadian acquired $3.9 billion of foreign debt and equities in February. The Canadian dollar dipped 0.64 cents to 98.04 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET All but two of the 14 TSX subgroups were still negative by noon. Global base metals weighed things down by losing 1.9%, metals and mining stocks were off 1.8% and materials skidded 1.3%. The two gainers were health-care, up 0.7%, and telecoms, ahead 0.2%. The TSX Venture Exchange shed 14.69 points to 1,652.15, while the Nasdaq Canada index tumbled 13.73 points to 779.02. ON WALLSTREET In New York, stocks wavered as banking giant Citigroup Inc.'s better-than-anticipated results partially offset worries about the potential impact on the financial sector of civil fraud charges against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. By lunch break, the Dow Jones industrial average subsided 23.12 points to 10,995.54. The S&P 500 index faded 5.59 points to 1,186.54;, the Nasdaq composite index gave back 23.39 points to 2,457.87. Citigroup shares were up 5.7% after the company reported profit more than doubled from the year-ago quarter as costs for bad loans declined. The major stock indexes had swung into positive territory after the Conference Board reported its index of leading economic indicators rose more than expected in March. Goldman Sachs shares were down 1.1%. Its shares dropped 13% on Friday, their biggest fall in more than a year, after the SEC filed suit against the bank and a vice president. Goldman dismissed as "unfounded" the SEC's contention that it sold securities tied to subprime mortgages without disclosing hedge fund Paulson & Co. helped select the underlying securities and bet against them. The hedge fund was not charged. On the economic front, the index of leading economic indicators rose 1.4% in March, marking 12 consecutive gains, following an upwardly revised increase of 0.4% in February. Analysts had expected a gain of 1.3% in March. Toyota will pay a $16.4-million U.S. fine for failing to notify the Department of Transportation about a defect in its cars, according to a senior Transportation Department official. Prices for U.S. Treasurys slipped a bit, with the yield on the 10-year note gained to 3.78% from Friday's 3.77%. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions The price of a barrel of oil slid $2.27 to $80.97 U.S. Gold prices let go of five dollars to $1,132 U.S. an ounce.