Tsx rides advances after superstorm
The Toronto stock market closed higher Wednesday in a fifth day of advances, led by rising mining stocks as commodity prices gained ground.
But New York indexes were weak as markets reopened for business after superstorm Sandy forced a two-day shutdown of U.S. financial markets.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 45.86 points to 12,422.91. The TSX Venture Exchange was 11.56 points higher to 1,314.48.
The Dow Jones industrials had found early support from the latest earnings report from General Motors Corp. and from a bounce at home improvement giant Home Depot, but ended the session down 10.75 points to 13,096.46.
The Nasdaq dropped 10.72 points to 2,977.23, weighed by a 3.8% drop in Facebook shares as the post-IPO lockup on about 229 million shares expired, making them available to the open market. The S&P 500 index inched up 0.22 of a point to 1,412.16.
Analysts pointed out that the New York markets had little to react to over the past couple of days with no major economic reports, while many companies postponed the release of earnings reports.
“I would expect the markets really to take their lead from tomorrow and the following days as we get more economic data and more earnings releases,” said Jeff Bradacs, portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management.
He pointed out that traders are looking to the latest reading on the Chinese manufacturing sector Wednesday night and the U.S. non-farm payrolls report for October, which comes out Friday.
“Really the key is actually the next couple of days.”
Traders also looked ahead to a U.S. election Tuesday that is too close to call and the approaching fiscal cliff.
The Canadian dollar registered a minor gain as the latest reading on economic growth missed expectations.
The loonie was up US0.03¢ to US100.1¢ after Statistics Canada reported that gross domestic product edged down 0.1% in August, the first monthly decline since February 2012. A 0.2% rise had been expected.
GM shares rose $2.25 or 9.66% to US$25.53 as its third-quarter profit fell 12% to US$1.5 billion or 89¢ a share as losses grew in Europe and North American warranty costs cut into earnings. Excluding one-time items, GM made 93¢ per share, easily beating Wall Street expectations of 60¢. Revenue grew 2.5% to $37.6 billion.
Home Depot stock was ahead 2.23% to US$61.38 on the expectation of higher profits as hundreds of thousands of people get set to repair their homes. Experts expect damage from Sandy to total around US$20 billion, about half of that insured.