TSX gains back ground, pride

Canadian stocks rebounded on Thursday after posting notable losses in the previous two sessions. Commodities have bounced back after falling sharply yesterday.

Within a half-hour of the first trades, the S&P/TSX composite index had recovered 121.45 points of what it had lost this week, or 1.1%, to 10,926.78.

On Wednesday, the S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 224 points, or 2%, to 10,829.20. Energy and mining stocks led the decline as the U.S. dollar continued to rebound versus the euro.

Crude oil and gold prices have added strength and copper is up 2.4 cents to $2.9545 U.S.

Barrick Gold reported a third-quarter net loss of $5.4 billion U.S. or $6.07 U.S. per share, compared to net income of $254 million U.S. or $0.29 U.S. per share in the same quarter last year.

Teck Resources on Wednesday reported a 44% surge in profit for the third quarter from last year, helped by foreign exchange translation gains on the company's net debt and higher coal sales volumes following the company's purchase of Fording Canadian Coal Trust last year.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates reported third-quarter net earnings of $29 million or $0.70 per share compared with $242,000 or $0.01 per share in the year-ago period.

TransAlta Corp. reached a deal to sell 18.65 million common shares. The purchase price of $20.10 per common share would result in gross proceeds of approximately $375 million.

On the economic front, the Industrial Product Price Index fell 0.5% and the Raw Materials Price Index dropped 1.1% in September compared to August, according to Statistics Canada.

The Canadian dollar regained 0.67 cents to 93.17 cents U.S.

ON BAYSTREET

All but one of the 14 TSX subgroups were in the green to start the day. Metals and mining stocks, yesterday's most bloodied victim, led the charge, surging 3.5%, while global base metals were 3.3% higher and gold stocks gained 2.5%.

The lone loser was the utilities group, off 0.5%.

The TSX Venture Exchange went back up 9.62 points to 1,266.02, while the Nasdaq Canada index picked up 10.12 points to 653.46.

ON WALLSTREET

In New York, stocks experienced a strong open Thursday, following a report that domestic product growth jumped higher than expected in the third quarter.

The Dow Jones Industrials gained 54.94 points to 9,817.63. The S&P 500 index added 7.39 points to 1,050.02. The Nasdaq composite index gained back 16.37 points to 2,075.98.

Thursday's GDP report showed a third-quarter annual gain of 3.5%.

GDP was expected to have grown at a 3.2% annualized rate in the third quarter after shrinking at a 0.7% annualized rate in the second quarter.

While a bounce seems impressive, it wouldn't necessarily signal a robust recovery for the economy.

The government also released its weekly figures on initial jobless claims.

For the week ended Oct. 24, jobless claims totaled 530,000, down 1,000 from the prior week's unrevised 531,000.

Exxon Mobil said its earnings plunged to 98 cents U.S. per share in the third quarter, compared to the year-ago EPS of $2.85 U.S. per share. Revenues totaled $82.26 billion U.S. in the third quarter, the oil company said.

Procter & Gamble reported a 3% gain in third-quarter diluted net earnings per share, to $1.06 U.S., but a 6% decline in net revenue, to $19.8 billion U.S., compared to the year-ago quarter.

The company stock edged up in pre-market trading.

Companies on tap to report results include Sprint Nextel.

Treasury prices lost ground, raising the yields for the benchmark 10-year note to 3.45% from Wednesday's 3.40%. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The price of a barrel of oil surged $1.18 to $78.78 U.S.

Gold prices increased $8 at $1,038 U.S. an ounce.