TSX flat as oil rises
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.