TSX declines: traders eye Greek debt talks, corporate earnings

TORONTO — The Toronto stock market was lower Friday with traders hopeful about the outcome of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers being held to discuss Greece's request for a sixmonth extension to it financial bailout.

The S&P/TSX composite index declined 35.15 points to 15,145.18.

Greece's bailout program is due to expire Feb. 28. In the short term, if no solution is found, Greece could be left to handle its debts alone starting next month.

The sticking point is that the proposal from Greece's new government did not promise to continue all of the budget cuts and reforms that the eurozone has demanded as a condition for past bailout payments.

But markets are hopeful there is sufficient goodwill on both sides to get an agreement to keep Greece out of bankruptcy and in the eurozone. Otherwise, there could be big problems on markets as traders generally have not priced in an alternate scenario.

The Canadian dollar moved down 0.16 of a U.S. cent to 79.85 cents as Statistics Canada reported retail sales slid 2.1 per cent in December to $42.1 billion, the largest decline since April 2010.

New York markets took off on optimism about a successful outcome to the Greek debt talks as the Dow Jones industrials jumped 125.29 points to 18,111.06, the Nasdaq gained 21.21 points to 4,945.91 and the S&P 500 index was up 8.56 points to 2,106.01.

In Toronto, the financial sector led decliners, down one per cent as Fairfax Financial Holdings (TSX:FFH) fell $31 or 4.5 per cent to $659 after announcing an agreement to issue 1,000,000 subordinate voting shares for $650 each.