TORONTO - The Toronto stock market maintained a healthy advance late Thursday morning while New York markets drifted down from early highs following the release of more dismal U.S. housing data.
The Canadian dollar was up 0.3 of a cent to 99.88 cents US after rising above parity earlier in the morning, moving as high as US$1.0023.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index moved up 55.97 points to 14,090.94 but the market was off earlier levels as gains were trimmed in the resource and financial sectors .
Investors also took in a speech by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who said Ottawa reduced the national debt last year by $14 billion, shaving $750 million off its annual interest payments.
Harper says those savings will be passed along to taxpayers in the form of continued cuts to personal income taxes.
A notable gainer on the TSX was financial firm Coventree Ltd. (TSX:COF). Its shares soared 33 cents or 30.84 per cent to $1.40 -- after jumping more than 70 per cent earlier -- after a committee of financial companies said "significant progress'' is being made to address the liquidity problem concerning third-party asset-backed commercial paper.
The company's share price has been highly volatile since last month when it got caught up in the liquidity crisis surrounding ABCP. Coventree is Canada's largest non-bank seller of such paper.
The TSX Venture Exchange was 21.21 points higher at 2,823.04.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrials were up 21.22 points to 13,899.37, down from earlier highs after the U.S. Commerce Department reported that new-home sales tumbled by 8.3 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 795,000 units in August, the lowest level in seven years and a weaker showing than was expected.
Investors are hoping that data such as this will persuade the Federal Reserve to follow up this month's half-point interest rate cut with another decrease in rates next month to boost the economy and limit damage from the housing sector from spreading to the rest of the economy.
The Nasdaq composite index gained 9.72 points to 2,708.75 while the S&P 500 index edged ahead 3.88 points to 1,529.3.
Stock markets have roared back to life since tumbling last month when the credit crisis started gathering momentum.
But some investors say they're limiting their exposure to equities right now because they're just not sure which way the market is headed.
"I would rather exercise caution and be wrong and buy in at a little higher price when I can see some direction really building in the positive side rather than be in there now and be wrong and the market takes a tank on me,'' said Adrian Mastracci, portfolio manager at KCM Wealth Management in Vancouver.
"Because I think when it takes a tank on me that's harder on the portfolio than my having to buy in back at a little higher rate, because now I'm getting 4.8 per cent through Bankers Acceptances.''
The TSX energy sector climbed 0.8 per cent as crude oil prices rose because of a tropical depression that was approaching Mexico, which raised concerns about possible disruptions to oil and gas production. The November crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained $1.35 to US$81.65 a barrel.
Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:ECA)rose $1.27 to $94.81 and EnCana Corp. (TSX:ECA) moved up 32 cents to $61.37.
The base metals sector gained 0.9 per cent, with Equinox Minerals (TSX:TCK.B) ahead 22 cents to $4.13.
The financials sector was ahead 0.5 per cent as Scotiabank (TSX:BNS)climbed 31 cents to $52.81 and CIBC advanced 86 cents to $99.10.
U.S. oil giants ExxonMobil and Murphy Oil are accusing Ottawa of breaching the North American Free Trade Agreement by allowing Newfoundland to require them to spend millions of dollars on research in the province.
The two companies plan to sue the federal government, alleging it violated a previous NAFTA agreement when a provincial-federal agency adopted a new guideline on research and development in November 2004.
