Roger Biduk; Bay Street Lower for Week

Roger Biduk:
The Toronto stock market closed slightly higher Friday - but lost ground on the week - following a second glum dose of U.S. economic data that raised doubt about how much the American consumer can participate in the recovery.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished off the lows of the session as early losses in the financial sector disappeared and energy sector declines moderated despite a steep drop in crude prices.

The index came back from a 112-point deficit to close 22.45 points higher to 10,848.01 after the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for August came in at 63.2. That was much worse than the 69 reading that economists had expected and down from 66 posted in July.
The consumer report on Friday came a day after other data showed that U.S. retail sales unexpectedly dropped last month.
The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 7.08 points to 1,193.42.
The Canadian dollar gave up early momentum to move down 0.9 of a cent to 90.93 cents US.

Roger Biduk
The economic news was better in Canada as manufacturing sales increased 1.9 per cent to $39.7 billion in June, a much better showing than the 0.3 per cent dip that economists had expected.
However, Statistics Canada said that strong sales in the aerospace industry and a rise in the price of petroleum and coal products largely explain the increase. Excluding both industries, Canada's manufacturing sales would have decreased 0.5 per cent.

The TSX energy sector was off 0.48 per cent Friday as the September crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gave up early advances following the release of the consumer sentiment data to tumble $3.01 to US$67.51 a barrel. Suncor Inc. (TSX:SU) dropped 61 cents to $35.84 and EnCana Corp. (TSX:ECA) moved down 60 cents to $56.56.

The TSX financial sector was up 0.48 per cent after the Irish Times reported Friday that a major Canadian bank has proposed to take a stake in Allied Irish Banks. It said that the investment would take place only after AIB's development loans move to NAMA, the National Asset Management Agency, which is being established by the Irish government to take over toxic development loans to developers.
Both CIBC (TSX:CM) and Royal Bank (TSX:RY) were mentioned as the interested buyer of a minority stake in the Irish bank, which confirmed it received interest from an unidentified third party.
But AIB said the discussions were "preliminary and are not expected to progress in the near term." Royal shares gained 65 cents to $51.36 and CIBC declined 31 cents to $67.75.

Roger Biduk
The base metals sector dropped 0.88 per cent as September copper fell back 7.8 cents to $US2.836 a pound. Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B) was down 80 cents to $29 while Sherritt International (TSX:S) lost 11 cents to $7.33.

The December bullion contract was down $7.80 to $948.70 an ounce, taking the gold sector down 0.56 per cent. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) faded 51 cents to $39.01.

A burst in the consumer discretionary sector was led by another strong showing in t-shirt maker Gildan Activewear (TSX:GIL). Its shares ran up $1.93 or 9.78 per cent to $21.66 after advancing almost 10 per cent Thursday as it said quarterly profits fell 24 per cent - but delivered an optimistic outlook.

A major decliner in Toronto was Chartwell Seniors Housing Real Estate Investment Trust(TSX:CSH.UN). Its units tumbled $1.07 or 16.2 per cent to $5.54 after the company cut its monthly cash distributions to unitholders on Thursday in a bid to preserve its cash. It said that "given the uncertain economic climate in North America management believes that recovery and growth in certain markets may take longer than previously anticipated."

On the earnings front, high priced teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch said Friday that slumping sales led to a loss of $26.7 million, compared with a profit of $77.8 million a year earlier. However, its shares ran ahead $1.29 to US$34.25.
FNX Mining Co. Inc. (TSX:FNX) reported second-quarter profits of C$12.5 million, up from year-earlier net earnings of $11.3 million. Revenue was down 45 per cent to $61.9 million and its shares rose 51 cents to $9.88. Linamar Corp. (TSX:LNR) saw a $48.4-million loss in the second quarter, but the auto parts company said it well positioned for a turnaround with hundreds of millions of dollars in new business set to begin production this year. Its shares fell 74 cents to $12.35.

http://www.rogerbiduk.wordpress.com/
http://www.rogerbiduk.blogspot.com/
http://bestcatanddognutrition.wordpress.com/