Slight gains on markets

Toronto stocks saw little change at the open, with commodity prices close to the unchanged mark. Investors are also mulling over Canadian gross domestic product data that came in Tuesday, in-line with analysts' expectations.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index began the day 30.46 ahead points to 10,507.23, gunning for a sixth straight upward session before the Canada Day holiday.

Statistics Canada says the nation's economy contracted for a ninth month in April because of falling output in the retail, manufacturing and energy industries.

The nation's number crunchers said gross domestic product declined 0.1% during the month, in line with the median estimate of 21 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

There were increases in the activities of real estate agents and brokers and wholesale trade.
Manufacturing production fell 1% in April on weak foreign demand, particularly among primary metal, petroleum and coal, food, paper and wood products makers. However, motor vehicle production and computer and electronic product manufacturing were both up.

In corporate news, JLL Partners announced it has made an offer to acquire Patheon at a price of $2.00 U.S. cash per share.

Financial security company Genworth Financial announced Monday night that it has priced the initial public offering or IPO in Canada of 44.7 million common shares of its Canadian mortgage insurance subsidiary, Genworth MI Canada, at $19.00 per share. The shares will trade on the TSX under the symbol "MIC.TO."

Bombardier Aerospace said that Porter Airlines of Toronto has placed a firm order for two Q400 NextGen turboprop airliners. Based on the list price for the Q400 aircraft, the order is valued at about $54 million U.S.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.01 cents to 86.46 cents U.S.

ON BAYSTREET

Of the 13 TSX subgroups, all but two were positive, albeit slightly. Energy was ahead, but only 1%, followed by metals and mining, gaining 0.9% and information technology prospered 0.7%.

The two laggards on the last day of the quarter were utilities, down 0.3% and financials, off 0.1%.

The TSX Venture Exchange proceeded doggedly ahead, 2.09 points, to 1,107.65, while the Nasdaq Canada Index gained 10.96 points to 693.04.

ON WALLSTREET

In New York, U.S. stocks opened the last session of 2009's first half slightly higher, amid economic reports on consumer confidence and housing.

The Dow Jones Industrials average added 5.21 points, to begin the day at 8,534.59. The S&P 500 index inched up 0.22 points to 927.45. The Nasdaq tacked on 4.60 points to 1,848.66.

As of Monday's close, the Dow was down 247 points, or 2.8%, for the first half of the year, while the S&P was 2.7% higher and the Nasdaq had risen more than 14%.

Economically speaking, home prices in the U.S. continued to tumble in April, falling 18.1% from a year earlier -- but the month-over-month change in a closely watched real estate gauge narrowed sharply, indicating that housing markets may be starting to turn.

The 20-city slice of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price index recorded a drop of 0.6% from March to April, compared with a 2.2% drop in the prior month. The index has declined every month since July 2006. The 10-city index fell 0.7%.

Elsewhere, the June Consumer Confidence index from the Conference Board is expected to have risen to 55.3 from 54.9, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

The Chicago PMI, a regional read on manufacturing, is expected to have risen to 39 in June from 34.9 in May.

Treasury prices continued their rally, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note moving down to 3.57%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices shed 19 cents a barrel to $71.31 U.S.

Gold prices added another dollar at $940 U.S. an ounce.