TORONTO - A boost in gold stocks helped give the Toronto stock market some buoyancy at mid-afternoon but the market was pressured by Teck Cominco Ltd. after announcing it plans to cut 1,400 jobs worldwide and by consumer stocks in the wake of disappointing U.S. retail news.
New York indexes were mainly lower in the wake of December results from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and concerns about Friday's December employment report.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index gained 42 points to 9,163.3 after yesterday's 351-point slide stopped a six-session winning streak in its tracks.
New York's Dow Jones industrial average fell 54.9 points to 8,714.8 on top of a 245-point loss.
Teck Cominco shares (TSX:TCK.B) moved down 39 cents to $7.21 after it announced the job cuts to deal with the global slump in commodity prices.
"They're caught in two worlds," said Ian Nakamoto, director of research at MacDougall, MacDougall and MacTier.
"One is the global downturn meaning copper and coal prices are under pressure. The second area they're getting caught up in is the credit crisis -- they have to finance this debt (for the purchase of Fording Canadian Coal Trust). They're in the eye of the hurricane."
The company also says it will reduce coal production in 2009, due to declining global steel demand.
In a sign that even the strongest U.S. retailers are struggling, Wal-Mart's December same-store sales rose 1.7 per cent, far below the 2.8 per cent gain that analysts had expected.
Wal-Mart also said it now expects earnings from continuing operations in the fourth quarter to be 91 cents to 94 cents per share, down from the previous forecast for $1.03 to $1.07 per share.
Analysts had expected earnings of $1.06 per share and the retailer's shares fell $4.23 to US$51.31.
The TSX Venture Exchange points to 889.09 while the Canadian dollar moved up 1.03 cents to 84.57 cents US.
The Nasdaq composite index was 3.44 points higher to 1,602.5 while the S&P 500 index gave back 1.9 points to 904.75.
Investors also took in dismal December retail data from other merchants.
Among the many that reported steep sales declines were Sears Holdings Corp., which operates Kmart and Sears stores, and Limited Brands Inc.
"This suggests that the lower income group is feeling the pinch more than we thought and this is clearly reflected in the lower-than-expected numbers at Wal-Mart," said Ken Perkins, president of research company RetailMetrics LLC.
"I think it says the economy is in more dire straits than we thought."
Meanwhile, a day before December employment data is released in the U.S. and Canada, the U.S. Labour Department said the number of new claims for jobless benefits dipped unexpectedly last week, but the number of people continuing to file claims rose to a new 26-year high. And economists believe the U.S. government will report on Friday another massive jobs loss for December in the neighbourhood of 490,000 jobs.
"The market has been bracing itself for a pretty grim number tomorrow," said Craig Peckham, market strategist at Jefferies & Co.
Canadian jobless data also come out Friday with the consensus calling for a drop of 22,000 jobs last month, although markets are braced for higher numbers.
The TSX energy sector was up 0.8 per cent as the February crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange declined $1.94 to US$40.69 a barrel. EnCana Corp. (TSX:ECA) declined 61 cents to $57.19 while Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) advanced 32 cents to C$27.49.
The financial sector added 0.55 per cent with Royal Bank (TSX:RY) ahead 39 cents to $37.47.
Retail brokerage firm TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. said Thursday it will acquire Thinkorswim Group Inc. in a cash and stock deal worth US$606 million. TD Bank (TSX:TD) owns a 40 per cent stake in TD Ameritrade and its shares were up 84 cents to C$46.40.
The base metals sector was down 1.8 per cent in the wake of the Teck announcement. HudBay Minerals (TSX:HBM) declined 12 cents to $3.67 but Sherritt International (TSX:S) rose 16 cents to $3.93.
The bright spot was the gold sector, up 3.65 per cent as the February bullion contract on the Nymex rose $12.80 to US$854.50 an ounce and Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX:ABX) ran ahead $1.61 to $38.95.
Shares in Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) were ahead 13 cents to C$33.13 after the company said fourth-quarter gold production hit a record 692,000 ounces while 2008 production came in above 2.3-million-ounce forecast. It added that its 2009 production target is unchanged at 2.3 million ounces while spending is expected at about $1.4 billion in 2009.
Consumer staples stocks also took a knocking after the Wal-Mart report with Shoppers Drug Mart down $1.02 to $43.99.
Drugstore chain Jean Coutu Group Inc. (TSX:PJC.A) reported a loss of $399.2 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2009, reversing year-earlier profits of $9.5 million. A change in Jean Coutu's fiscal year-end means the company's third-quarter results are being compared with those reported during the second quarter of 2008. It shares were down 11 cents at $7.59.
Health Sciences firm MDS Inc. (TSX:MDS) says an expected fourth-quarter writedown on goodwill at its MDS Pharma Services division amounts to $320 million, within a range the company had earlier predicted.
In revisions to unaudited financial results released last month, MDS says the charge would increase its fourth-quarter loss two US$575 million, revised from an unaudited $255 million loss reported in December and down sharply from year-earlier profits of $15 million or 13 cents per share. Its shares climbed 27 cents to $7.94.
