Dec. 31, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --
Canadian stocks are looking to hold onto recent gains Thursday morning on the final trading day of a tumultuous 2009, and early signals are positive with commodity prices on solid footing.
The S&P/TSX Composite index began the year's final session ahead 42.50 points to 11,759.96.
Activity will be light, with most traders prepping for New Year's festivities and markets on Wall Street closing early.
Canadian stocks have been moving in a narrow range for the past few months on turbulent commodity prices, after witnessing an impressive surge from March through September.
In the commodity markets, the price of crude oil was hovering in the positive terrain on the back of encouraging economic numbers and on a weakness in the U.S dollar.
Crude was up in price after yesterday's data from U.S. revealed that crude inventories dipped in the last week. Meanwhile, the price of gold managed to move back above the psychological $1,100-mark -- thanks to a weaker dollar.
In corporate news, Bombardier said it had won a $415-million order from Spain to maintain 30 high-speed trains for 14 years.
Rating of Black Diamond Income Fund, engaged in renting modular structures, was hiked to "strong buy" from "outperform" at Raymond James.
Brokerage Haywood initiates coverage of precious metal explorer Endeavor Silver with a "sector perform" rating and with a price target of $4.25.
Gold miner Centamin Egypt said that its Chairman Sami El-Raghy will be stepping down on December 31.
Oil and gas producer Crocotta Energy Inc. said it would be selling various non-core properties for $33 million and announced it had signed a new bank credit facility for $58 million.
Natural resource company Encore Renaissance Resources Corp. announced it would raise $5 million via private placements of up to 25 million units at $0.20 per unit.
The Canadian dollar regained 0.52 cents to 95.33 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but two of the 14 TSX subgroups began the session on the right foot Thursday. Gold led the charge, up 0.9%, followed by consumer staples, ahead 0.6%, and materials, gaining 0.5%.
The two laggards, information technology and health-care, were both off 0.2%.
The TSX Venture Exchange powered ahead 8.03 points to 1,502.91, while the Nasdaq Canada index regained 3.96 points to 732.61.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks were poised to open the final trading session of 2009 with modest gains after a report on initial jobless claims came in better than expected, giving investors even more reason to celebrate a year of solid market advances.
The Dow Jones Industrials was down 24.11 points to begin the last day of 2009 at 10,524.40, while the broader S&P 500 was off 1.21 points to 1,125.21, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq stumbled 1.65 points to 2,289.63.
Stocks were choppy Wednesday but ended slightly higher, with the Dow and Nasdaq reaching 2009 highs. All three indexes have posted substantial gains year-to-date and are set to end the year up over 20%.
The markets will remain open for a full session Thursday, the last trading day of the year, but trading volume will be light, with many market participants on vacation. The markets will be closed Friday in observance of New Year's Day.
An ongoing dispute between Time Warner Cable and Fox remains in the spotlight. If a deal is not reached before the Dec. 31 deadline, all of the Fox-owned broadcast networks and some of its cable channels could disappear from some Time Warner Cable subscribers' televisions on New Year's Day.
Before the bell, the government's weekly jobless claims report showed initial unemployment claim filings fell to 432,000, the lowest level since July 2008.
The number was an unexpected improvement from a revised 454,000 filings the previous week. A Briefing.com consensus of analysts had estimated there would be 460,000 new filers for unemployment insurance last week.
Treasury prices dropped sharply, raising yields on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.85% from Wednesday's 3.79%. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil gained 44 cents to $79.73 U.S.
Gold prices strengthened $11 to $1,103 an ounce U.S.
