Roger Biduk - Lower Day on Bay Street

Roger Biduk writes:

Blue chips in Toronto traded lower Friday afternoon -- after data showed a massive drop in employment in the United States and Canada last month while Royal Bank reported a 15 percent decline in profit.

The S&P/TSX composite index was down 167.55 points to 7,890.27.

Canada's largest bank reported a 15 percent decline in quarterly profit. The Royal Bank of Canada earned $1.12 billion in the fourth quarter of the banking year, down from $1.32 billion a year earlier. Revenue sagged 10 percent to $5.07 billion.

Laurentian Bank (LB.TO) reported Friday a fourth-quarter profit of $27.3 million, down slightly from a year-ago $30.2 million and said its full-year earnings came in at a record $102.5 million. The Montreal-based bank said its earnings for the quarter ended Oct. 31 amounted to $1.02 per share, versus $1.14 per share in the year-ago period.

West 49 Inc. (WWX.TO) scored a profit or $2.1 million in the back-to-school quarter, down from $2.6 million a year earlier. But the action-sports retailer said Friday its sales grew to $61.7 million in its third quarter ended Oct. 25, up 4.4 percent from a year earlier, as same-store sales advanced 2.1 percent.

On the data front -- Statistics Canada reported the economy shed 70,600 jobs last month, against the 20,000 expectation, and the unemployment rate rose to 6.3 percent from 6.2 percent. The job losses included 66,000 in Ontario.

Down south -- The Labor Department said U.S. nonfarm payrolls plunged by an astonishing 533,000 last month, the worst such tally in 34 years, with the unemployment rate climbing to 6.7 percent, the highest since October 1993.

Also -- a record 1.35 million homes were in foreclosure in the third quarter, driving the foreclosure rate up to 2.97 percent, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Friday. That's a 76 percent increase from a year ago, according to the group's National Delinquency Survey.

The Canadian dollar, meanwhile, was trading 1.24 cents lower at 77.18 cents US.

Two of the TSX sub-groups traded higher this afternoon -- tech stocks were up 1.04 percent and consumer staples stocks gained 0.21 percent.

On the downside -- gold stocks fell 5.46 percent. COMEX gold for February delivery lost $14.50 to $751 US an ounce.

Oil was shedding 90 cents to $42.77 US a barrel. Energy issues shed 4.84 percent and mining stocks dipped 3.67 percent.

Meanwhile, the TSX Venture Exchange shed 17.17 points to 680.69 and the NASDAQ Canada was off 0.52 points at 378.41.

www.rogerbiduk.ca
www.rogerbiduk.blogspot.com