Feb. 1, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
After opening higher, Canadian stocks rallied further in mid-morning deals Monday.
By noon, the S&P/TSX Composite Index remained ahead 144.24 points, or 1.3%, to 11,238.55.
Investors lapped up stocks after the main index fell to a two-month low in the previous session. Moreover, commodity prices appeared to have arrested their losing streak, with gold and oil moving higher from their recent lows.
The Gold Index gathered strength, with Eldorado Gold adding 2.20%. Goldcorp. gained 2.04%.
Bank of Nova Scotia rose 1.05% after Korea Development Bank said that it will opt out from a bid for a stake in Thailand's Siam City Bank, in which BNS was one among the bidder.
Royal Bank of Canada gathered 1.11%.
Among energy plays, Suncor Energy was up 1.13% and Imperial Oil rose 0.75%. Both the companies are scheduled to release their earnings report Tuesday.
Encana Corp. moved up 2.14%.
Potash Corp. gained 2.60% after BHP Billiton purchased a Canadian Potash project, setting aside speculation that BHP may bid for Potash Corp.
MagIndustries Corp. rose 3.85% after it announced that it will develop a potash mine in Republic of Congo in association with China National Complete Plant Import & Export Company.
The Information Technology Index moved up, as Blackberry maker Research in Motion added 0.82% after a research report said that worldwide smart phones sales grew 30% in the fourth quarter.
Another technology play, Open Text, rose 1.23%.
Canadian Pacific Railway climbed 0.97% to $50.97 even after Scotia Bank trimmed its price target on the stocks to $61.50 from $63.00.
On the negative side, mining operator Roca Mines surrendered 11.59% after reporting a narrower first quarter net loss of $0.02 per share, down from a loss of $0.06 per share in the year-ago quarter.
Specialized drug developer ConjuChem Biotechnologies slipped 4.55% after reporting narrower net loss for the year ended October 31, 2009 of $0.06 per share, compared to a loss of $0.16 per share, prior year.
Commerce Resources Corp. shed 2.78%. The company announced Saturday the resignation of its Chief Financial Officer, Shaun Ledding, and noted that he will remain as a consultant.
The Canadian dollar regained 0.51 cents to 93.85 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but one of the 14 TSX subgroups were in the green by midday. Gold led the charge by gaining 3.3%, materials were up 3.2% and global base metals were 3.1% to the good.
The lone laggard was the telecom group, down 0.2%.
The TSX Venture Exchange was 6.10 points better at 1,498.25, while the Nasdaq Canada index was ahead 10.76 points to 695.83.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks rallied Monday morning, starting off a new month on the right foot, as investors welcomed better-than-expected reports on personal income and manufacturing and Exxon Mobil's quarterly results.
The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 84.41 points by noon to 10,151.74. The S&P 500 index gained 10.99 points to 1,084.86. The Nasdaq composite was ahead 10.95 points to 2,158.30.
Wall Street ended one of the worst months in nearly a year Friday, with the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all closing at two-month lows. President Obama's plan to restrict trading at big banks, China's bank lending curbs and global debt worries all rattled investors.
But investors used the selloff as an opportunity to get back into stocks Monday morning. Gains were broad based, with 27 of 30 Dow components rising, led by Boeing, Caterpillar, Chevron, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, McDonald's and Exxon Mobil.
Exxon Mobil reported a profit of $6.05 billion U.S. or $1.27 U.S. per share, down about 18% from the fourth quarter of 2008 when oil prices were lower and fuel demand was higher. Nonetheless, results topped the forecasts of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
With around 45% of the S&P 500 having reported results, earnings are currently on track to have risen 206% from a year ago, according to the latest from Thomson Reuters. But the rise is mostly due to cost-cutting and easy comparisons to an abysmal fourth quarter of 2008.
The financial sector in particular is set to bounce back. Strip out financial sector results and earnings are only expected to rise 15%.
Revenue is set to rise about 7% year-over-year. Without financials, revenue is expected to rise about 2%.
President Obama unveiled a $3.8-trillion-U.S. budget for 2011 Monday morning that looks to both support the still-fragile economy and temper the nation's growing deficit.
Personal income rose 0.4% in December, the Commerce Department reported, surprising economists who were looking for an increase of 0.3% on average, according to Briefing.com estimates. Income rose 0.5% in the previous month.
Personal spending rose 0.2% after rising 0.3% in the previous month. Economists thought it would rise 0.3% in December.
The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index rose to 58.4 in January from 54.9 in December. Economists thought it would rise to 55.5.
Construction spending fell 1.2% in December, worse than the drop of 0.5% economists were expecting. Spending fell 1.2% in November.
On Monday, the company announced plans to fix millions of gas pedals in recalled vehicles and said it has already shipped out parts to dealers.
The fix eliminates the problem that caused pedals to stick, which prompted the recall of 2.3 million vehicles in the United States.
Treasury prices slid, thus raising the yield on the 10-year note to 3.66% from Friday's 3.60%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil went up 91 cents to $73.80 U.S.
Gold prices leaped $15 to $1,099 U.S.
