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TSX listing lower by noon(Baystreet Stock Market Update (Canada) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Commodities falling in Toronto Bay Street stocks continued to drift lower on Friday, moving further off of a yearly high. Commodity-linked sectors led the weakness. The S&P/TSX Composite Index had let go of 73.57 points by noon to 11,573.30. Gold stocks and materials stocks are off as Agnico-Eagle Mines has dropped 2.1%, Eldorado is down 1.7% and New Gold has slipped 1.5%. Mining stocks have also declined, as Inmet is down 3%, HudBay dropped 2% and Teck Resources declined 1.8%. Softchoice Corp. said it has entered into a bought deal agreement to sell 2.25 million common shares at $7.75 per share for gross proceeds of about $17 million. The stock is up 1.6%. Voice Mobility International has added 3.8% after the company reported a third-quarter loss from operations of $496,354 compared with $594,816 loss last year. Sun Life Financial dropped 0.5% as President Jon Boscia told Bloomberg the company needs to make an acquisition in the U.S. The Canadian dollar lost 0.75 cents to 93.30 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET All but three of the 14 TSX subgroups were down at the outset, weighed by metals and mining stocks, off 1.5%, global base metals, down 1.4% and gold, off 1.2%. The gainers were led by health-care and consumer staples, both up 0.2%, while information technology advanced 0.04%. The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 2.75 points to 1,398.19, while the Nasdaq Canada index regained 1.18 points to 650.87. ON WALLSTREET In New York, Stocks drifted lower Friday, continuing a two-day retreat, as investors remained jittery about the economy and the outlook for the technology sector. The Dow Jones Industrials had travelled 40.05 points lower by midday to 10,292.39. The S&P 500 index jettisoned 6.22 points to 1,088.68, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 17.02 points to 2,139.80. After climbing to a 13-month high earlier this week, the major indexes have fallen for two consecutive sessions amid worries about the economic recovery, the strengthening dollar, and the technology sector. Stocks have rallied sharply from the lows of early March as improved economic news encouraged investors to pile into more risky assets. But a recent spate of downbeat reports on housing and retail sales, along with mixed corporate results, have undermined the market's optimism. Shares of big technology companies remained under pressure after PC giant Dell reported weak third-quarter results late Thursday. Shares of Dell were down 9%. The dollar rose against rival currencies for the second day in a row, helped by increased demand for safe-haven assets and supportive comments from Federal Reserve officials. The stronger greenback weighed on dollar-denominated commodities such as crude oil and gold. Dell reported late Thursday a sharp drop in quarterly profit that fell short of Wall Street's estimates. Also on Thursday, analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the semiconductor industry. That came one day after two key software companies issued cautious profit outlooks. But in other earnings news, retailer Gap said its quarterly profit surged 25%. Economically speaking, a government report showed more U.S. states suffered rising unemployment rates, though fewer reported joblessness above the national average in October. Treasury prices were flat, leaving yields at Thursday's 3.34%. The price of a barrel of oil declined 30 cents to $77.15 U.S. Gold prices were also flat, at $1,142 U.S. an ounce, their record high © 1998 - 2009 Baystreet.ca Media Corp. All rights reserved. |