TSX down amid LowER EXPECTaTionS

The Toronto stock market closed lower Friday with buyers inclined to do little at the end of a negative week amid falling commodity prices and a strong earnings report from an American banking giant.

The S&P/TSX composite index eased 31.91 points to 12,202.04 while the TSX Venture Exchange was 7.13 points lower at 1,292.81.

The Canadian dollar closed down 0.06¢ at US102.11¢.

New York markets were also listless after JPMorgan handed in a record quarterly profit of US$5.7 billion, up 34% from a year ago as the bank set aside less money for bad loans. Earnings were $1.40 per share, far exceeding the $1.21 predicted by analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue rose 6% to $25.1 billion, beating expectations of $24.4 billion.

JPMorgan stock dropped 48¢ to US$41.62. However, the stock has already come back strongly from a low of $31 in early June.

Indexes also failed to find support from a strong consumer confidence reading.

The Dow Jones industrials added 2.46 points to 13,328.85 as the University of Michigan’s index for October came in at 83.1, up from 78.3 in September.

The Nasdaq composite index shed 5.3 points to 3,044.11, while the S&P 500 index was down 4.25 points at 1,428.59.

The TSX ended the week down 217 points or 1.74% in the wake of a gloomy assessment of the global economy by the International Monetary Fund, which reduced its growth forecast for the world economy to 3.3% this year from its previous estimate of 3.5%.

Still, the TSX is up about 7.5% from the market lows of early June, largely because of a commitment from European Central Bank president Mario Draghi to do whatever it takes to preserve the monetary union and another round of quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The gold sector led decliners, down about 1.3% as December bullion was off $10.90 to US$1,759.70 an ounce. On the TSX, Barrick Gold Corp. faded 73¢ to C$38.31.

The base metals sector drifted down 0.45% as metal prices backed off with December copper down 5¢ to US$3.70 a pound. Teck Resources dropped 50¢ to C$29.89.

The energy component was slightly higher as the November crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange shed early gains to move down 21¢ to US$91.86 a barrel. Prices have advanced this past week on fears that the conflict in Syria could widen and threaten oil shipments from the Mideast. Canadian Natural Re

sources gained 24¢ to C$30.25.