Mar. 10, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
The Toronto stock market advanced Wednesday morning amid rising commodity stocks and earnings from the tech and media sectors.
The S&P/TSX composite index approached noon hour ahead 38.33 points to 11,957.04.
The TSX has been lower all week following a sharp 3% gain last week as investors responded to higher commodity prices and a slew of positive bank earnings.
The Canadian dollar was down, amid a report from CIBC World Markets that said expectations of higher interest rates and investor demand for Canada will help drive the currency past parity with the U.S. greenback by this summer.
The base metals sector gained ground as May copper was off a penny to $3.40 U.S. a pound. Sherritt International gained 11 cents to $8.78.
Gold stocks slid, even as Kinross Gold Corp. moved up 11 cents to $19.15.
The telecom sector also provided lift as Rogers Communications gained 39 cents to $34.79.
Media company Quebecor Inc. said it had a $73.8-million profit in the fourth quarter. The company had a $343.6-million loss in the fourth quarter of 2008 as it wrote down the value of goodwill and other intangible assets. Revenue from all segments grew $25.6 million to just under $1.03 billion. Quebecor shares rose $1.14 to $33.36.
Oil prices declined as traders took in an inventory report providing mixed evidence about U.S. crude demand.
The American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. crude inventories jumped last week by 6.5 million barrels. Analysts had expected that a cold weather spell in much of the U.S. this month would have resulted in a drop of 1.6 million barrels. However, inventories of gasoline and distillates fell more than expected.
In other earnings news, logistical services company Descartes Systems Group reported net income of $10.3 million U.S. or 17 cents U.S. per share for the quarter ended Jan. 31. The profit was down from a year earlier when the company, which reports in U.S. dollars, booked earnings of $15.4 million or 29 cents per share.
Quarterly revenue surged 20% to $18.9 million, led by a jump in services revenues. Its shares were unchanged at $6.35.
Brookfield Real Estate Services Fund reported that its net income increased to $1.5 million in the fourth quarter, about seven times higher than it was a year earlier, as the royalties it received from brokerages rose nearly 10 per cent. Brookfield units ticked four cents higher to $12.54.
Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs wants an appeals court to kill the sale of Canwest Global Communications' television assets to cable operator Shaw Communications. Goldman helped Canwest finance the acquisition of a variety of specialty channels including Showcase and History Television as part of a takeover of Alliance Atlantis for $2.3 billion in 2007.
Goldman called the TV sale process corrupt, and asked the Ontario Court of Appeal to reconsider other purchase proposals, including one backed by Goldman, that were "wrongly" rejected by the bankruptcy court. Shaw shares dipped three cents to $20.43.
The Canadian dollar was flat to 97.45 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Nine of the 14 TSX subgroups led yesterday's close by noon Wednesday. Metals and mining stocks had advanced 1.1%, while telecoms picked up 1%, energy stocks were 0.7% better.
The five laggards were weighed mostly by gold, off 0.8%, utilities, down 0.3%, and real-estate, trailing Tuesday's close by 0.2%.
The TSX Venture Exchange put on 4.11 points to 1,562.87, while the Nasdaq Canada index progressed 11.02 points to 799.07.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks rose Wednesday as strength in the financial services and technology sectors outweighed a pair of mixed economic reports.
The Dow Jones industrial average nosed ahead 2.88 points to 10,567.26. The S&P 500 index moved up 4.68 points to 1,145.13, and the Nasdaq composite ran ahead 15.19 points to 2,355.87
Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of the Nasdaq's all-time closing high of 5,048.62, marking the peak of the dot.com bubble.
Bank stocks led gainers. Bank of America advanced 2% and JPMorgan Chase was up 1.3%. Technology stocks mostly rose, with the exception of Cisco Systems which had rallied in the previous session.
Stocks have been mostly lackluster this week as investors took a step back in the absence of any major market moving news.
One expert said investors are starting to show a little more confidence in response to corporate news, such as Abbott Labs' acquisition of Facet Biotech and J. Crew's report that revenue jumped 19% in the fourth quarter.
Economically speaking, the U.S. Commerce Department said wholesale inventories unexpectedly fell 0.2% in January. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected a gain of 0.2%.
Separately, the Labor Department said fewer states reported increases in unemployment in January.
At 2 p.m. ET, the Treasury budget will be released. Economists expect a February deficit of $221 billion U.S., compared with a deficit of $42.6 billion U.S. in January.
Treasury prices dipped, raising yields for the benchmark 10-year note to 3.73% from Tuesday's 3.69%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil regained $1.02 to $82.51 U.S.
Gold prices shrugged off three dollars at $1,119 U.S.
