TSX slightly higher on choppy data
The Toronto stock market closed with a small gain Tuesday amid concerns about China’s growth and worsening tensions between Ukraine and Russia.
The S&P/TSX composite index climbed 19.49 points to 14,303.92.
The Canadian dollar was down 0.2 of a cent (U.S.) to 91.1 cents a day ahead of the Bank of Canada’s latest interest rate announcement. It is universally expected that the bank won’t hike its key rate from 1 percent, where it has been since September 2010.
New York indexes closed higher at the end of a volatile session as the Dow Jones industrials gained 89.32 points to 16,262.56, the Nasdaq was 11.47 points higher at 4,034.16 and the S&P 500 index was ahead 12.37 points at 1,842.98.
Worries about the Ukraine crisis deepened after the government’s first military action since acting President Oleksandr Turchynov announced an “anti-terrorist operation” against separatists who have seized control of numerous buildings in the east of the country. The government said troops restored control over a small airport in eastern Ukraine that had been occupied by pro-Russian militiamen. Concerns about China also weighed as data showed a tightening of credit growth. Money supply growth was up just 12.1 per cent year over year in March, the slowest pace in 17 years. And that slowing in credit growth raised fresh worries about economic growth in the world’s second-biggest economy. There are worries that gross domestic product growth may fall below 7 per cent in the current year, a full 0.5 of a percentage point below the government’s target. Official growth figures for China will be released Wednesday. Markets found some buoyancy from well-received earnings reports. Coca-Cola beat expectations as the beverage giant said adjusted pershare earnings fell to 44 cents while net operating revenues fell to $10.58 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 44 cents on revenue of $10.55 billion and Coca-Cola shares rose 3.74 per cent. Also, drug company Johnson- &Johnson reported earnings per share of $1.54, seven cents better than analyst forecasts while revenue of $18.115 billion beat forecasts of $17.996 billion. Its shares ran up 2.12 per cent. Intel and Yahoo reported earnings after the close. Intel ran up 2.73 per cent in afterhours trading as earnings per share came in at 38 cents, a penny more than expectations. Revenue of $12.76 billion narrowly missed expectations of $12.81 billion. And Yahoo’s earnings per share exitems were 38 cents, a penny higher than analyst forecasts and its shares edged up 0.4 per cent in after-hours trading. Tech stocks led TSX advancers, up 0.58 per cent.