TSX stages slow, steady gain

Canadian stocks are moderately higher on Wednesday as record gold prices provided a boost to metal-related sectors. With the gain, the market erased its slide from yesterday.

At midday, the S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced 99.31 points to 11,638.94.

Mining stocks have gained, with First Quantum has rallied 5.75%, HudBay has added 4.7% and Teck Resources is up 2.3%.

Materials stocks and gold stocks have added strength Kinross is up 2.7%, Iamgold has gained 2.5% and Barrick Gold is up 1.3%.

Labopharm has added 7.1% after the company said it has entered into a standby equity distribution agreement or SEDA with YA Global Master.

Stantec has added 0.5% after the company said that it has received a major contract from the U.S. General Services Administration to provide 3D laser scanning and surveying services for federal building projects across the country. The contract is worth $30 million U.S. over the next five years.

GLG Life Tech Corp. announced the completion of its equity offering. The company issued and sold 3.625 million common shares at $7.60 U.S. per share for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $27.5 million U.S. and net proceeds to the company of approximately $25.8 million U.S. The stock has dropped 2.7%.

LM Ericsson Telephone Wednesday said it will buy certain assets of GSM/GSM-R business of Canadian network solutions company Nortel Networks for a purchase price of $70 million U.S.

The Canadian dollar tacked on 0.79 cents to 95.24 cents U.S.

ON BAYSTREET

All 14 TSX subgroups were higher by noon. Metals and mining led the festivities, ahead 2.8%, while materials prospered 1.8% and global base metals gained 1.6%.

The TSX Venture Exchange gained 17.36 points to 1,429.77, while the Nasdaq Canada picked up 8.86 points to 664.53

ON WALLSTREET

In New York, stocks climbed Wednesday morning as investors welcomed a jump in new home sales and consumer spending and income, and a bigger-than-expected drop in weekly jobless claims.

The Dow Jones Industrials was up 31.75 points at lunchtime to 10,465.46. The S&P 500 index advanced 3.76 points to 1,109.41, while the Nasdaq regained 6.47 points to 2,175.65.

Trading was also likely to be volatile Wednesday and attendance low as investors gear up for the Thanksgiving holiday Thursday, when all financial markets are closed. Friday brings an abbreviated session for stocks.

Sales rose to a 430,000-annual-unit rate in October from a 405,000-unit rate in September.

Economists expected sales to dip to a 404,000-annual-unit rate.

Personal income and spending showed a surprise rise in October, according to a Commerce Department report released in the early morning.

Income rose 0.2% after rising 0.2% in September. Economists thought it would rise 0.1%, according to Briefing.com estimates. Spending was up 0.7% after falling 0.6% in the previous month.

A separate report showed that orders for durable goods fell 0.6% in October, surprising economists who were expecting orders to rise 0.5%. Orders for goods meant to last three years or more gained 2% in September.

Things appeared a bit brighter on the job front Wednesday as the number of people filing for first-time unemployment claims fell to 466,000 last week, the lowest level since September 2008.

Consensus estimates were for initial jobless claims to be 500,000, according to Briefing.com.

AIG CEO Robert Benmosche has officially agreed to a compensation package that could reach $10.5 million U.S., the company announced late Tuesday.

Treasury prices backtracked, raising the yields on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.34% from Tuesday's 3.30%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The price of a barrel of oil regained $1.05 to $77.06 U.S.

Gold prices raced ahead $13 to $1,180 U.S.