TSX cloSeS lower, buT higher on week
• The Toronto stock market closed lower Friday at the end of a positive week during which indications that the U.S. economy didn’t take a major weather-related hit this winter helped ease the prospect of higher interest rates.
The S&P/TSX composite index was 26.07 points lower at 14,335.76.
The Canadian dollar was ahead US0.26¢ at US89.21¢ in the wake of a better-thanexpected reading on retail sales for January and slowing price pressures.
Statistics Canada said retail sales were up 1.3%, against the 0.7% rise that had been expected.
U.S. markets were also off the best levels of the session even as data suggested that U.S. economic growth should bounce back following a harsh winter.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 28.28 points to 16,302.77, Nasdaq fell 42.50 points to 4,276.79 and the S&P 500 index was down 5.49 points at 1,866.43.
The U.S. Conference Board’s index of leading indicators rose in February by the largest amount in three months. And a key manufacturing reading, the Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing index, rebounded in March from a negative February reading.
The data helped persuade investors that the U.S. economy is strengthening to a point at which it can withstand higher short-term interest rates.
“[The data] could have been a whole lot worse — all the talk earlier was that it was going to be a lot worse,” said Fred Ketchen, manager of equity trading at ScotiaMcLeod.
“But when they finally get down to the numbers, they escaped a bit, we escaped along with them and it gives you a good feeling.”
Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen said Wednesday that the U.S. central bank could begin raising short-term rates six months after it halts its bond purchases around year-end. The Fed has been steadily cutting back on those purchases, a key element of stimulus that had kept longterm rates low since December.
The tech sector fell 1.75% and BlackBerry Ltd. shares dropped 42¢ to $10.19 as it announced the sale of a majority of its real estate holdings in Canada. Terms of the deal and the buyer were not disclosed.
The gold sector fell about 0.7% even as the April gold contract gained US$5.50 to US$1,336 an ounce after four days of declines as traders hoped the Ukraine crisis wouldn’t worsen.
The industrials sector was down 0.6%. Conductors, yard workers and other train workers at Canadian National Railways Co. have rejected a second tentative contract, prompting the company to suggest the talks go to a form of binding arbitration. Its shares were down 71¢ to $62.13.
Economic optimism sent oil and copper higher, with May copper up US2¢ to US$2.95 a pound. The base metals sector gained 1.47%. The May crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was up US3¢ to US$99.46 a barrel and the energy sector rose 0.48%.
Worries about Chinese growth and the Ukraine crises had depressed markets last week but the TSX ran ahead this week by 108 points, or 0.76%, held back by sliding gold stocks. The Dow industrial average advanced 237 points or 1.48%.