Finance topics

The Toronto stock market clawed back a big chunk of the ground it lost in the previous session today in a broad-based advance led by energy stocks as oil prices resumed marching upward.

But the financial sector lost some of its earlier strength after TD Bank (TSX: TD) reported lower earnings and revenue in its latest quarterly report.

New York markets shook off weakness to move higher late in the session despite a rebound in oil prices as investors took in an upbeat durable goods orders report.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index moved up 166.49 points to 14,688.62 after sliding 236 points Tuesday.

TD posted second-quarter net income of $852 million, down from $879 million as wholesale banking results declined on turbulent credit markets. Revenue slipped to $3.4 billion from $3.5 billion.

TD shares were negative for most of the afternoon, but closed up 26 cents at $68.70.

Analysts pointed out that the financial sector has come a long way since the lows of mid-March, when JPMorgan Chase bought out rival Bear Stearns with the backing of the U.S. Federal Reserve, rising more than eight per cent.

"What is differentiating this quarter is that the markets are not tearing a strip off these banks," said Gareth Watson, Canadian equity adviser at Scotia McLeod.

"I think the results are showing that business is slow, but everyone should have been expecting that. But I think that we haven't seen any devastating surprises whereas in past quarters there's been some stuff that's come to the forefront – and CIBC is the great example of that – whether it be at the quarter or intra-quarter in terms of writedowns and detailing other exposure."

Overall, the financial sector was ahead 0.66 per cent as Scotiabank gained $1.14 to $48.79 after being punished by investors Tuesday in the wake of its quarterly earnings report.

Shares in Laurentian Bank (TSX: LB), the country's eighth-biggest by market value, rose 57 cents to $41.82 after the bank reported that second-quarter profit jumped 21 per cent from a year ago to $25.1 million.

The TSX Venture Exchange was off 2.25 points to 2,648.25 while the Canadian dollar moved up 0.35 cent to 101.02 cents US.

New York's Dow Jones industrial average moved up 45.68 points to 12,594.03.

The Nasdaq composite index was 5.46 points higher at 2,486.7 while the S&P 500 index gained 5.49 points to 1,390.84.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported orders for big-ticket manufactured goods fell by a smaller-than-anticipated 0.5 per cent in April bad credit payday advance. Excluding volatile orders for transport equipment, orders rose by 2.5 per cent last month, the biggest gain in nine months.

Orders for electrical equipment and appliances surged 27.8 per cent, the biggest increase on record.

The TSX energy sector, down two per cent early in the session as oil prices briefly touched the US$125.96 level, moved ahead 1.3 per cent as the July crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed up $2.18 to US$131.03 a barrel.

Crude fell by more than $3 on Tuesday as traders sensed that high prices – which briefly topped $135 a barrel last week – are lowering demand.

"Last week, we were advising clients to pare back on their energy positions, if they have gotten too big in the portfolio to take some money off the table," added Watson.

"There's not enough attention being made to demand destruction."

On the TSX, Suncor Energy (TSX: SU) gained $74 cents to $68.89 and Canadian Natural Resources (TSX: CNQ) moved ahead 95 cents to $98.89.

Gold prices and stocks moved lower with the June bullion contract on the Nymex down $7.40 to US$900.50 an ounce. The TSX gold sector was up 0.55 slightly as GoldCorp (TSX: G) rose 44 cents to $40.46.

The industrial sector moved ahead 1.75 per cent with Bombardier Inc. (TSX: BBD.B) ahead 24 cents to $7.63 while Canadian Pacific (TSX: CP) advanced $2.34 to $73.34.

Market heavyweights giving the TSX a lift included Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX: RIM), up $2.26 to $135.94 and Potash Corp. (TSX: POT) gained $6.51 to $195.50.

Sears Canada Inc. (TSX: SCC) reported a 1.9 per cent decline in comparable-store sales in its first quarter. The department store chain operator said net income was $63.1 million, up from $14.3 million in last year's first quarter, boosted by a $28.3-million one-time gain. Its shares ran ahead $1.70 to $25.20.

Canada's federal government has renewed its software maintenance contract with Open Text Corp. (TSX: OTC). Shares in Canada's largest publicly traded software company added $1.35 to $35.82.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) says plans to conduct involuntary layoffs of salaried employees by August as part of a restructuring in the face of slumping sales and record-high gas prices. A spokeswoman said the number hasn't yet been determined. Its shares were off two cents to US$6.78.

On the TSX, declines beat advances 804 to 759 with 220 unchanged as 341 million shares traded worth $7.1 billion.

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The Toronto stock market was in the red Friday morning as energy stocks continued to backtrack even as oil prices remained near all-time highs.

"People are saying it's great to have oil from an investing point of view at $133 a barrel – but can this last?" said Adrian Mastracci, portfolio manager at KCM Wealth Management in Vancouver.

"I think it's time to take some money off the table – not all of it, I wouldn't want to be not part of it, but I don't think you would want to load up on it."

Dismal housing data and costly oil helped depress New York markets.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index fell 138.18 points to 14,654.183.85 late in the morning.

The TSX Venture Exchange climbed 13.26 points to 2,693.59 while the Canadian dollar declined 0.12 cent to 101.31 cents US.

New York's Dow Jones industrials were down 130.33 points to 12,495.18.

The Nasdaq composite index slid 26.31 to 2,438.27 while the S&P 500 index moved down 17.17 to 1,377.18 after the National Association of Realtors said single-family home sales dropped by one per cent in April from May, while the median price tumbled 8.5 per cent from a year ago to US$200,700.

The TSX energy sector lost early gains to move down 1.7 per cent while the June crude contract in New York climbed $1.73 to US$132.54 a barrel.

Suncor Energy declined $2.03 to $68.80 while EnCana Corp. (TSX: ECA) moved down $2.03 to $90.90.

Crude had tumbled $2.36 Thursday as investors some profits from the huge recent runup, but analysts expect prices to move even higher.

"The market is really structurally tight … and we've got investors – speculators – empowered to continue to power money into oil," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

However, Shum added: "The reality is, the faster it goes up for no apparent reason, when it comes down, it will be just as fast."

TSX financials fell almost one per cent with Royal Bank (TSX: RY) down 79 cents to $49.61 and Scotiabank (TSX: BNS) 78 cents lower to $47.37.

The market found some support from BCE Inc http://payday-faxless.com. (TSX: BCE), which rose 49 cents to $33.13, following a 12 per cent loss Thursday which came after the Quebec Court of Appeal upended the proposed $52-billion takeover of the Bell Canada parent company by a group led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

Elsewhere in the telecom sector, Telus Corp. (TSX: T) ran ahead 53 cents to $48.21.

The TSX gold sector moved up 0.3 per cent as the June bullion contract on the Nymex climbed $7.80 to US$926.10 an ounce.

The materials sector was down as Potash Corp. (TSX: POT) lost $6.58 to $190.22, Sherritt International (TSX: S) shed 49 cents to $14.93 and Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) lost 39 cents to $9.20.

Shares in TransCanada Corp. (TSX: TRP) were off 33 cents to $39.59 after Alaska Governor Sarah Palin came out in favour of the company's proposal for a natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to a hub in Alberta.

Aeroplan Income Fund (TSX: AER.UN) disclosed that it intends to change its name to Groupe Aeroplan Inc. as part of its planned conversion from an income trust into a corporation. Aeroplan units rose five cents to $16.36.

In U.S. corporate news, clothing retailer Gap Inc. rang up a first-quarter profit that surpassed analyst projections, rising 40 per cent thanks to cost-cutting and better inventory management,

And Halliburton Co., the world's second-largest oilfield services company, made a US$3.4-billion bid to acquire British rival Expro International Group.

London's FTSE-100 index was down 56.6 points to 6,125. The German DAX shed 100.05 points to 6,970.28, while the Paris CAC-40 declined 84.27 to 4,944.47.

Tokyo's Nikkei index edged up 0.2 per cent, gaining 33.74 points to 14,012.20, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1.3 per cent, closing down 329.05 points to 24,714.07.

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Plans to consolidate offices, cut costs and increase market share at Allstate Insurance Co. of Canada have hit a major snag.

About 40 leading agents have quit the Markham company rather than accept a demotion and pay cut, and they’ve gone into competition as brokers for other insurers.

Now three of them have sued their ex-employer, seeking compensation for themselves and every other agent who quits before September 2009. They want $60 million from Allstate and its parent, America’s largest publicly held insurer of personal property.

Agents started leaving Allstate a few months after it announced plans last July to close 256 neighbourhood offices and move 450 agents into 100 new company-owned offices, 23 of which will be opened by the end of May.

Senior agents ran their own businesses, paid the rent and hired staff, even though they were employees of Allstate Canada. They expected to see their compensation and managerial role reduced dramatically as Allstate divided their responsibilities among a team of specialists to improve customer service and increase sales. No longer would they collect sales commissions on the renewal of existing policies, and they did not consider the company’s guarantee to continue their level of pay for two years adequate.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges pay levels were not truly guaranteed: rather, they were bound to fall, and this was a breach of employment standards legislation.

"Allstate knew or ought to have known that the purported `guarantee’ of agents’ income for a 24-month period was transparent and could/would not be achieved," the agents allege in their statement of claim.

"Allstate was entirely without care, deliberate, callous, wilful and in intentional disregard of the individual rights and circumstances of class members."

The allegations have not been proven in court cash advance in one hour. But the chances of persuading a court about one central argument look good, at least going by one judge’s finding.

Judge Paul Kane of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice wrote in March there is a "strong possibility" a court will find Allstate repudiated its employment contracts.

He made this prediction when he refused to order former Sudbury agent Rod LaRocque to stop competing with Allstate as an independent broker.

The new lawsuit, filed by Hamilton lawyer David Thompson, proposes Esther Kafka of Windsor, Ketal Patel of Tecumseh and Mark Cassells of Hamilton as the lead plaintiffs in a class action.

Kafka said yesterday that disgruntled agents did not quit immediately because they first tried to reason with Allstate, and later felt threatened when the company sued LaRocque. It also took time for them to pass examinations to qualify as brokers.

"We felt they were trying to listen to our concerns … but in the last week of November we all got an email to say that everything was pretty much status quo," she said. "That is when we considered our options."

Spokesperson Derek Tupling said Allstate is reviewing the statement of claim.

He said 73 agents have left Allstate since last September for a variety of reasons, but the company has hired 76 others and offered contracts to sales associates hired through an employment agency to work at neighbourhood offices.

"Competition is heating up, and every company wants to increase their share of the pie," he said. "We want to be part of the game."

James Daw, CFP, appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 416-945-8633; or by email at

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TOKYO – Japan's central bank kept interest rates steady Tuesday, as widely expected, amid lingering worries about a global slowdown.

The seven-member policy board was unanimous in keeping the benchmark overnight call rate unchanged at 0.5 per cent at the end of a two-day meeting, according to the Bank of Japan.

Soaring gasoline prices, rising material costs and signs of slower global growth are weighing on the world's second-largest economy, which depends heavily on exports.

Economists predict that the Bank of Japan is likely to do nothing for about a year unless economic signs change dramatically.

During much of last year, market watchers had expected the BOJ would raise its key interest rate as Japan's economy gained steam. But the global economic turmoil set off at midyear by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis scotched that view, and a jittery market began to expect a move in the opposite direction – a rate cut.

The Japanese economy has proved remarkably solid recently. Last week, the government said the economy grew at a stronger-than-expected 3.3 per cent annual pace in the first quarter, racking up its third consecutive quarter of growth.

Still, economists warn that export growth could stumble if overseas economies falter, and domestic spending will probably stay weak.

Bank of Japan governor Masaaki Shirakawa, who took office last month, acknowledged energy and raw material costs are expected to stay high for some time.

"We are looking closely at downside risks to the economy," Shirakawa told reporters, indicating that a rate hike was unlikely for some time.

The Bank of Japan echoed such sentiments in its economic report issued Tuesday, warning that the pace of growth was slowing because of the high prices of energy and raw materials fast cash advance loan. The language was similar to what the bank said the previous month.

Since 1999, Japan had kept interest rates generally at about zero to jump start a lagging economy. It ended its zero interest policy in July 2006.

Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga said higher material and oil costs remain a challenge for the world economy.

"The worst appears to be over for the global financial market," he said at a symposium in Tokyo, "but recently rising oil and food prices are making economic policy management difficult."

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You have to be thankful for a job that allows you to get thank you notes every day.

Sometimes, only media intervention can generate results – and relief – for frustrated customers.

Ahmed Shehata has a new phone with a global positioning system delivered by general packet radio service (GPRS).

He used it only once before being hit with a huge bill.

"It took roughly two minutes to download a portion of the map," he said, "but those two minutes cost me $179."

Shehata was thinking of leaving Rogers Wireless, his carrier for four years, but got a response within two days of writing to me.

"They decided to refund the GPRS charges. I checked my credit card account and the credit is already there. Wow. That was fast."

Irma Orchard sent flowers after I helped her get a refund from Expedia.ca for a trip to France she had to cancel.

"My husband came down with a fever with full-blown cold symptoms," she said.

"We had booked just 10 days earlier and thought we wouldn’t need the cancellation insurance."

The pre-paid hotel reservation, which cost more than $2,000 for six nights, was non-refundable, Orchard was told.

"Expedia went beyond that to refund our airfare," she said, after I got involved. (Originally, she had been given a credit for a flight taken within the next year.)

"Many thanks. Your work is very much appreciated."

John Sacke had booked a hotel in Las Vegas with Expedia, but learned of a mysterious $6 daily surcharge only when he checked in.

At first, the company said nothing could be done for Sacke. Then, it reversed its decision.

"Although the $6 a night fee was not something added by Expedia.ca, they feel sympathetic and have decided to refund him his money," said Noor Marzook, a spokesperson for Expedia Canada Corp http://payday-nofax.com.

I first wrote about Expedia.ca last January, after getting complaints from people who had waited hours on hold when calling for help.

This month, Expedia sent emails to affected customers and offered them a $50 voucher as an apology for "a longer than acceptable wait time."

While a bit late, the company’s response is commendable.

The vouchers can be used until March 31 of next year for travel completed by Dec. 31, 2009.

Yannick Picard asked me for help after switching from Bell to Primus. His telephone service was transferred in mid-April, but his Internet transfer hit a snag.

"Here I am, stuck in limbo," he told me on April 30.

"Is this nuts or what? I’ve been a very patient customer, caught between two large corporations that are pointing fingers at each other."

Rob Warden, vice-president of Primus, called him the next morning and promised to get him online.

With his prodding, and mine, Bell’s technicians finished the preparatory work later the same day.

"By 5:30 p.m., Primus had my Internet connection up and running. Thanks a million for your assistance," Picard said.

As much as I like getting thanked, I have to return the favour and recognize companies that react quickly in a crisis.

Thank you, Primus, for rescuing customers caught in a failed switch.

And thank you, Bell Canada, for your continued responsiveness.

According to a list compiled by spokesperson Jason Laszlo, Bell has resolved about 100 complaints from Toronto Star readers since Jan 1 of this year.

Now that’s something to be grateful for.

Write to onyourside@thestar.ca

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ING Canada Inc. has reported a sharp drop in first-quarter net income to $23 million, compared with $126.2 million a year earlier, blaming turbulent weather and stock markets.

The Canadian property and casualty subsidiary of Dutch-based ING Groep NV said Wednesday that its January-March operating profit fell to $70.2 million from $112.8 million "as a result of the severe storms that hit Central Canada over the winter months."

The decline in net income to 19 cents per share – down from 95 cents a year ago and far short of analyst expectations of 83 cents per share – came as the slide in operating profit was aggravated by declines in equity- market returns.

ING, the largest provider of property and casualty insurance in the country with 11 per cent of the market, said premiums written increased by 1.7 per cent from a year earlier to $860.3 million.

"Our commercial insurance profitability improved significantly and our current-year automobile insurance results remained stable despite the difficult driving conditions resulting from the weather conditions in Quebec and Ontario," commented ING Canada CEO Charles Brindamour.

"However, numerous storms and near-record snowfalls in Central Canada resulted in a loss on our home insurance activities pay day loan. While the industry’s loss ratios are usually higher during the first quarter, this year’s weather conditions had a more severe impact than usual."

Meanwhile ING booked an overall investment portfolio market yield of about five per cent, but "the decline in equity markets in the quarter caused a higher level of recognized investment losses."

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Shares of Research In Motion jumped 4 per cent this morning after the wireless email pioneer took the wrap off a new BlackBerry device that had been the subject of leaks and speculation for several weeks.

RIM’s stock was trading up $5.93 at $139.28 on the Toronto Stock Exchange Monday morning after the Waterloo-based company officially confirmed details of the BlackBerry Bold smartphone, which is the first BlackBerry to support so-called third generation, or "3G," wireless technology on GSM networks.

The device, a version of which was thoroughly reviewed on the website CrackBerry.com last week, is expected to be available by "summer 2008," RIM said.

There were no details about pricing or which carriers would be offering the device initially.

RIM touted the BlackBerry Bold as a "top-of-the-line, high-performance smartphone designed for professionals," although the device will likely also appeal to consumers thanks to its camera, video recording and enhanced Web browsing capabilities.

Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said the Bold is evidence that RIM, which says nearly 40 per cent of its 14 million subscribers are now consumers, hasn’t forgot about its core base of corporate clients and their need for secure wireless email.

"It’s pretty fair to say that the Bold does quite a job for cementing our leadership in the (enterprise) side," Balsillie told Reuters. "We understand our roots and we understand the priority there."

The unveiling of the BlackBerry Bold comes amid speculation that Apple Inc. is preparing to launch a 3G-version of its consumer-oriented iPhone device in June.

That has led some to wonder whether RIM’s strategy is to first defend its core market of business users before plunging further into the consumer space with a touchscreen-style device online payday loan.

Last week, for example, RIM revealed a potentially important partnership with Germany’s SAP AG, which makes business management software, to offer back-end business applications natively on the BlackBerry platform.

Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note to clients that the new BlackBerry device is likely to be the first of several new models in 2008, including a flip phone version of the BlackBerry to compete with devices from Motorola Inc. and Nokia Oyj and, possibly, a multimedia-focused "iPhone-killer."

As for the Bold, Abramsky said it could spark "a healthy mini-product cycle in U.S., deeper penetration in Europe and Asia, where 3G is competitively available."

Jeffrey Fan, an analyst at UBS Investment Research, said in a note to clients that the BlackBerry Bold is reportedly to go on sale at AT&T Inc. for $300 to $400 (U.S.).

A spokesperson for Rogers Communications Inc., the only Canadian carrier with a compatible network, could not immediately be reached for comment regarding the BlackBerry Bold’s availability in Canada.

Rogers recently announced it had a deal with Apple to offer the iPhone in Canada, but has not released details on a launch date or pricing.

Despite numerous reports that suggest RIM is in danger of losing ground to Apple, several analysts have argued that ballooning demand for smartphones means there’s more than enough room for both competitors to grow their market share.

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DUBLIN, Ireland–Guinness beer owner Diageo PLC rattled an Irish icon yesterday, announcing plans to lay off more than half of its brewery workers, close two breweries and shift most beer production to a new, high-tech plant in the Dublin suburbs by 2013.

The British beverage company decided not to close the landmark Guinness brewery, one of Dublin’s oldest businesses and a top tourist attraction, after concluding that would do too much damage to its brand image and customer sentiment.

Diageo expects to lay off about 250 people, or 58 per cent of its current brewery workforce in Ireland, over the next five years. Brewing staff at the flagship Guinness brewery at St. James’ Gate in west Dublin will be slashed from 230 to just 65.

Half of the riverside St. James’ Gate site will be sold for private development, and the volume of Guinness brewed there will be cut by about a third – to about 500 million pints annually.

This will exclusively supply the Irish and British markets, where demand has slipped over the past decade in line with pub goers’ diversifying tastes.

David Gosnell, Diageo’s managing director of global supply, said the move to a new suburban mega-brewery was necessary to compete with the rise of lower-cost breweries in Eastern Europe, Russia and China.

"The business is hugely competitive. … Smaller breweries are consolidating and closing in Western Europe," Gosnell said.

Gerry O’Hagan, supply director for Diageo in Ireland, said the current production capacity of the Dublin, Dundalk and Kilkenny breweries was less than 1.25 billion pint glasses of beer annually, while the new plant will produce more than two-thirds of that on its own.

Diageo executives said they planned to spend 800 million euros, or about $1.25 billion (Canadian), on the plan cash till payday.

About 100 million euros has been earmarked to build a new brewhouse and refurbish other facilities at the St. James’ Gate brewery, where English entrepreneur Arthur Guinness began brewing Ireland’s hallmark dark brown, creamy stout in 1759.

Brian Duffy, who travels the world promoting Guinness as its global brand director, said Arthur Guinness was a visionary but unsentimental businessman who negotiated a bargain 9,000-year lease on the St. James’ Gate site. He noted that Arthur Guinness had moved there in search of better profits.

The company estimates that much of the cost of the project can be reclaimed by selling land at the Dundalk, Kilkenny and Dublin sites valued at an estimated 500 million euros.

Officials in the two towns losing breweries expressed shock at the news.

Associated Press

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Representatives from the Canadian Auto Workers met with Chrysler yesterday to try to prompt it into early negotiations.

CAW national president Buzz Hargrove says Chrysler didn’t immediately commit, but the automaker didn’t reject the idea either.

The CAW-Chrysler meeting followed a vote over the weekend in which members of the CAW ratified a three-year deal affecting nearly 9,000 employees at Ford Canada.

The union secured a promise from General Motors to begin talks tomorrow.

The current contracts with GM and Chrysler run out in September and affect around 22,000 workers.

Hargrove said the CAW and Chrysler "had a very cordial meeting," to share the information on the pattern agreement at Ford and the company "agreed that they would get back to us in a couple of days."

The CAW typically reaches an agreement with one of the Big Three automakers and then uses that deal as a framework for deals with the other two automakers where it has collective agreements payday loans online.

In the past, both GM and Chrysler have taken a harder line than Ford on the need to cut costs in the face of rising competition from Japanese-based manufacturers.

Chrysler didn’t highlight any particular factor or address specific issues, Hargrove said.

The Canadian Press

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The Toronto stock market was flat early Monday afternoon as the TSX was pressured by declines in bank stocks.

But the market found support from the commodity sectors as oil cracked the US$120 a barrel level for the first time, copper prices hit record levels and gold prices ran ahead. Crude ended the North American trading day up $3.65 at a record closing price of US$119.97 a barrel, supported by weekend news of an attack on a Nigerian oil installation.

High crude prices helped send New York markets lower, as did Microsoft Corp.'s withdrawal of its US$47.5-billion offer for Yahoo Inc.

Indexes failed to get a lift after data on the U.S. service sector came in a bit better than expected.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index edged up 9.25 points to 14,289.53.

The energy sector was up 1.2 per cent, as the June crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped as high as US$120.36.

On the TSX, EnCana Corp. (TSX: ECA) gained $1.41 to $81.84 and Suncor Energy (TSX: SU) ran ahead $2.40 to $116.05.

The TSX Venture Exchange was down 10.48 points to 2,485.03 while the Canadian dollar rose 0.56 cent to 98.67 cents US.

New York's Dow Jones industrial average fell 93.3 points to 12,964.9. The Nasdaq composite index moved down 15.09 points to 2,461.9 and the S&P 500 index declined 7.75 points to 1,406.15.

Microsoft scrapped the Yahoo bid late Saturday after failing to agree on a price, and Yahoo shares tumbled $4.50 to US$24.17 in New York while Microsoft added 13.5 cents to US$29.37.

Elsewhere on the mergers-and-acquisitions front, the Wall Street Journal reported Deutsche Telekom AG is considering a bid to acquire Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-biggest provider of cellphone services in the United States. Sprint shares jumped 33 cents to US$8.22.

Investors were relieved to see the Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing index rise to 52 in April from 49.6 the previous month. Observers had expected continued contraction.

"However, with confidence depressed, employment declining, and gas prices sky high, it's clear that considerable headwinds are still facing the U.S. economy," observed RBC economist Rishi Sondhi.

Elsewhere in the Canadian energy sector, Ensign Energy Services Inc. (TSX: ESI) reported first-quarter earnings of $81.8 million, down 20 per cent from a year earlier as revenue fell seven per cent to $472.2 million "due to reduced levels of oilfield services activity in Canada." Ensign shares climbed 43 cents to $22.51.

Saxon Energy Services Inc fast cash advance. (TSX: SES) confirmed an agreement to be taken over by global energy services provider Schlumberger Ltd. and private equity group First Reserve Corp. The price is $7 per share, a total of $592 million for the Calgary company, which had disclosed the takeover talks on April 21. Its shares were up nine cents to $6.96.

The Toronto gold sector was 1.7 per cent higher with the June bullion contract up $16.10 to US$874.10 an ounce. Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX: ABX) improved $1.17 to $39.48.

Goldcorp Inc. (TSX: G) shares were up 27 cents to $37.08 after an 84 per cent rise in first-quarter earnings to US$229.5 million. Revenue grew 32 per cent to $626.7 million as record gold prices made up for operating shortfalls at the company's Canadian mines.

The base metals sector advanced three per cent with copper prices briefly surging to a new record Monday of US$4.2605 a pound on supply concerns fed by a mining stoppage in Chile, the world's largest producer of the metal. During the afternoon, copper prices were up 15 cents to US$3.97. Teck Cominco Ltd. (TSX: TCK.B) added $1.68 to $46.08 and Equinox Minerals (TSX: EQN) ran ahead 25 cents to $4.74.

Lundin Mining Corp. (TSX: LUN) rose 20 cents to $7.40 after it said it will build an additional processing circuit at its Neves-Corvo mine in Portugal to recover more copper and zinc.

The financial sector was down 1.9 per cent. Royal Bank (TSX: RY) retraced $1.09 to $48.99 and CIBC (TSX: CM) stepped back $2.30 to $74.

DundeeWealth Inc. (TSX: DW) has struck a deal to buy 60 per cent of Aurion Capital Management Inc., a Toronto institutional money manager with $4.5 billion under management. DundeeWealth shares were off four cents to $14.

U.S. financials were also weak with Countrywide Financial Corp. down 93 cents at $5.05 after an analyst at investment bank Friedman Billings said Bank of America Corp. should drop plans to buy the embattled mortgage lender on expectations its loan portfolio will be a drag on earnings.

WestJet (TSX: WJA) shares were off 54 cents to $16.49 as a 15-month streak of record load factors ended in April. The proportion of seats filled during the month slipped to 82.5 per cent, compared with 82.8 per cent in April 2007, on a big increase in capacity.

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