TSX ahead at opening

Toronto stocks enjoyed gains early on Monday as traders awaited the latest earnings news. The market fell to its lowest level in more than two weeks in the previous session.

Within minutes of Monday's opening, the S&P/TSX Composite index had cobbled together a gain of 79.74 points to 11,461.87.

On the commodity front, crude oil and gold prices both declined, while copper has added 2.25 cents to $3.057 U.S. per pound.

Iamgold Corp. announced it now projects 2009 production of about 940,000 - 950,000 ounces of gold, an increase of 30,000 ounces over its prior guidance issued in June 2009.

DDi Corp. said it has offered to acquire all the outstanding shares of Coretec for $0.20 per share, or approximately $3.6 million.

Canfor Pulp Income Fund reported its third quarter net income of $18.3 million or $0.26 per share, compared to $11.1 million or $0.15 per share in the same period last year.

Later in the week, Canadian Pacific Railway and Nexen are among the companies reporting quarterly earnings results.

The Canadian dollar dropped 0.32 cents to 94.70 cents U.S.

ON BAYSTREET

All 14 TSX subgroups started the day in positive territory. Global base metals was the early leader, up 2%, followed by metals and mining, ahead 1.8%, energy gained 1.4%

The TSX Venture Exchange picked up 0.20 points to 1,334.11, while the Nasdaq Canada index gained 6.05 points to 704.69.

ON WALLSTREET

In New York, stocks rallied at the start of Monday trading, in a broad-based advance, as investors used last week's selloff as an opportunity to jump back into the market at a modestly lower level.

The Dow Jones Industrials gained 87.51 points to 10,059.69. The S&P 500 index advanced 10.32 points to 1,089.92. The Nasdaq composite index picked up 24.09 points to 2,178.56.

Investors appeared ready to get back in the market after a recent retreat. U.S. stocks ended last week lower, breaking a two-week run. Stocks ended lower Friday as the market couldn't sustain early gains driven by upbeat results from Microsoft and Amazon.com, and a big rise in existing home sales.

Given the lack of economic indicators on Monday, he said there was little reason to propel stocks upward, except as a reaction to the overzealous selloff at the end of last week.

Dow component Verizon said quarterly profit tumbled 30% as higher costs countered an increase in revenue thanks to its strong wireless business. Nonetheless, earnings topped expectations. The company also reported higher quarterly revenue.

Just shy of 140 components of the S&P 500 are due to report quarterly results this week. With more than 40% of the S&P 500 having already reported, profits are currently on track to have fallen just over 18% from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters.

So far, results have been soundly above forecasts, with 81% of companies topping expectations, 7% meeting and 12% missing.

In company news, Capmark Financial, one of the country's largest commercial real estate lenders, filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday, reflecting the major problems in the business property sector.

Dutch financial services firm ING said Monday it plans to spin off its insurance business and sell $11.3 billion U.S. of stock to pay back the government some of what it took in bailout money last year.

Treasury prices fell, raising the yields for the benchmark 10-year note to 3.54% from Friday's 3.49%. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The price of a barrel of oil added 67 cents to $81.17 U.S.

Gold prices gained back two dollars to $1,058 U.S. an ounce.