Commodity stocks take TSX up; N.Y. rises on earnings from Yahoo, Morgan Stanley

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(The Canadian Press)

By Malcolm Morrison, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Rising mining stocks gave the Toronto stock market minor lift mid-morning Wednesday while investors took in some good earnings news from the American tech and financial segments.

The S&P/TSX composite index inched up 8.4 points to 11,546.6. Performance was similarly muted on Tuesday in the wake of some disappointing U.S. housing starts data.

The Canadian dollar made slight headway a day after losing almost two cents Tuesday. The slide was triggered by the Bank of Canada, which announced it was keeping its key rate at 0.25 per cent, strongly indicated a rate hike won't happen until the middle of next year - and delivered a clear warning of the damage being done to the economy by the surging currency.

On Wednesday, the loonie was ahead 0.23 of a cent to 95.4 cents US.

The base metals sector was up 0.8 per cent as the December copper contract on the Nymex was ahead a penny at US$2.95 a pound. Teck Resources (TSX: TCK-B.TO) gained 66 cents to $35.02.

December gold moved down $2.80 to US$1,055.80 an ounce and the gold sector edged up 0.6 per cent.

The energy sector was down 0.25 per cent as the December crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange moved down 14 cents to US$78.98 a barrel.

Crude surmounted $80 a barrel early on Tuesday, capping a two-week rally. But prices softened as the American Petroleum Institute reported that U.S. oil inventories rose last week, rising 3.8 million barrels against the 2.2 million barrels that analysts had expected. Suncor Inc. (TSX: SU.TO) lost 45 cents to C$39.40.

The TSX Venture Exchange moved up 1.38 points 1,340.97.

New York's Dow Jones industrial average rose 52.8 points to 10,094.3.

The Nasdaq composite index gained 21.59 points to 2,185.06, supported by a well-received earnings report from Yahoo Inc., while the S&P 500 index added 6.75 points to 1,097.8.

Morgan Stanley was an investor favourite, up $2.17 to US$34.69 as the U.S. bank returned to profitability for the first time in a year as stock and debt underwriting by its investment banking division more than offset US$400 million in losses from commercial real estate

The New York-based bank says it earned $498 million, or 38 cents per share, well over expected earnings of 27 cents per share.

And Yahoo Inc. reported after Tuesday's close that it more than triple its third-quarter profit from last year to top analysts' relatively low expectations for the troubled Internet company.

But the results released Tuesday also showed Yahoo's revenue fell by at least 12 per cent for the third consecutive quarter. That revenue rut means Yahoo still has a long way to go on its comeback trail but its shares rose 79 cents to US$17.96.

Boeing said lost US$1.6 billion in its third quarter because of problems with its long-delayed 787 and a new version of its 747 jumbo jet. That prompted the airplane maker to slash its profit forecast for 2009.

Elsewhere in the industrials sector, Canadian National Railways (TSX: CNR.TO) said after the market close Tuesday that quarterly profits dropped 16.4 per cent to $461 million. Revenue fell 18 per cent to $1.85 billion. CN's shares traded down 86 cents to $54.18.

In other corporate news, Jaguar Financial Corp. (TSX: JFC.TO) says it opposes a proposed $192-million takeover of nickel mine developer Canadian Royalties Inc. (TSX: CZZ.TO) by Jien Canada Mining Ltd. Jaguar says holders of Canadian Royalties debentures should receive all of their principal plus a premium, not 80 cents on the dollar as proposed by Jien. Canadian Royalties shares lost two cents to 77 cents.

Inter Pipeline Fund (TSX: IPL-UN.TO) has boosted monthly distributions to 7.5 cents from seven cents a unit. It also raised distributions on an annualized basis to 90 cents from 84 cents after an operating and financial review. Its units rose 14 cents to $10.29.

Asian stock markets faltered Wednesday as weak U.S. housing starts data Tuesday tempered optimism about better-than-expected corporate earnings.

Japan's market bucked the trend with the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average recouping early losses to rise 0.1 per cent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.1 per cent and China's Shanghai benchmark fell 0.2 per cent.

London's FTSE 100 index was unchanged, Frankfurt's DAX gained 0.45 per cent while the Paris CAC 40 dropped 0.16 per cent.