The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market snapped a three-day run of gains Thursday as falling oil and metal prices depressed commodity stocks.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 27.88 points to 11,824.97.

The financial sector was the brightest spot on the TSX amid solid earnings results from TD Bank (TSX:TD) and a major acquisition deal for the country’s biggest independent securities broker. Vancouver-based Canaccord Financial Inc. (TSX:CF) is acquiring Toronto-based Genuity Capital Markets for $290 million.

The deal is expected to broaden Canaccord’s reach from beyond its traditional base in junior resource stocks and further into mergers and restructuring, where Toronto-based Genuity has focused its growth. Canaccord shares ran ahead 82 cents or 9.53 per cent to $9.42.

TD Bank shares were up $1.35 to $69.71 as the bank was the latest to report solid earnings for the last quarter. Net income rose to $1.3 billion, essentially doubling what it earned a year earlier. Adjusted net income was $1.43 billion or $1.60 a share, handily beating estimates of $1.35 a share.

“It has been an excellent season,” said Fred Ketchen, manager of equity trading at Scotia Capital.

“(The earnings) certainly are impressive and some of them are suggesting obviously, we’re out of a recession and back into something that is showing some growth.”

The Canadian dollar was ahead 0.13 of a cent to 97.03 cents US.

The energy sector lost 0.65 per cent as the April crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange slipped 66 cents to US$80.21 a barrel. Canadian Oil Sands Trust (TSX:COS.UN) declined 56 cents to $28.03.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (TSX:CNQ) handed in quarterly net earnings of $455 million, down from $1.77 billion a year ago. The company also said it is raising its quarterly dividend by 43 per cent to 15 cents a share. CNQ shares rose 20 cents to $71.96.

The gold sector was a major decliner as April gold on the Nymex dropped $10.20 to US$1,133.10 an ounce. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) fell 77 cents to $40.66 while Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX:ABX) dropped 51 cents to $40.94.

The base metals sector was off 2.02 per cent with May copper off six cents to US$3.38 a pound. Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B) lost 68 cents to $40.47.

The TSX telecom sector dipped 0.46 per cent after the federal Conservative government announced in its Throne Speech on Wednesday that the industry is being thrown open to both venture capital and investment from outside the country. The move would set the stage for more wireless players and possibly lower rates for cellphones and other telecom services.

Canada’s wireless market is dominated by three players — Bell (TSX:BCE), Rogers (TSX:RCI.B) and Telus (TSX:T). Rogers was down 29 cents to $33.87.

The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 11.29 points to 1,541.84.

Meanwhile, investors are cautious of making big moves ahead of the premier economic report of the week, the U.S. non-farm payrolls report for February.

Ahead of that report, investors got some good news from the latest reading on U.S. jobless claims.

The U.S. Labour Department said that 469,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, slightly better than the 470,000 forecast by analysts.

Claims jumped unexpectedly the previous two weeks.

The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 47.38 points to 10,444.14.

The Nasdaq composite index was ahead 11.63 points to 2,292.31 while the S&P 500 index was ahead 4.18 points to 1,122.97.

Meanwhile, Greece has raised badly needed cash with a new bond issue, passing a key test of its ability to avoid a disastrous debt default and dig out of a financial crisis that has shaken the European Union

The bond has been three times oversubscribed, meaning more takers than there were bonds available, with euro15 billion ($20.5 billion) in offers received. The government took euro5 billion (US$6.8 billion), the maximum it was looking for, offering a 6.3 per cent yield.

Investors also absorbed news that Leonard Asper resigned Thursday as the president and CEO of restructuring media company Canwest Global Communications (TSXV:CGS). Cable giant Shaw Communications (TSX:SJR.B) has struck a deal to take control of Canwest’s TV and broadcasting assets and a number of suitors have come forward to bid separately for the newspapers. Its shares were unchanged at nine cents.

Shares in HudBay Minerals Inc. (TSX:HBM) fell 80 cents to $13.25 as the miner said it’s considering a joint venture with junior explorer VMS Ventures Inc. (TSXV:VMS) at the Reed Lake property in northern Manitoba. The proposed agreement would also resolve a boundary dispute between the two companies. The stock price was already under pressure a day after the company said its profit in its latest quarter was cut in half, partly because of lower sales of copper. VMS shares surged 5.5 cents to 35 cents.

@page_break@In other earnings news, patent licensing company Mosaid Technologies Inc. (TSX:MSD) said late Wednesday that it earned $2.2 million in its third quarter, down from $2.3 million in the same quarter a year ago. The Ottawa-based company signed a patent licensing agreement in January with consumer electronics giant Samsung on computer memory chips. The five-year deal has an estimated value of between $50 million and $80 million. Mosaid shares rose 52 cents to $24.34.

Groupe Aeroplan Inc. (TSX:AER), which runs the Aeroplan points program for Air Canada (TSX:AC.A) and others, reported it had a $20.5-million profit in the fourth quarter. That compares with a $1.07-billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2008 when the firm recorded an accounting charge to reflect the impaired value of its assets amid a downturn in the global economy. Groupe Aeroplan shares dropped 88 cents to $11.01.