By James Langton
(September 7 – 13:00 ET) – After opening higher, the stocks have slid to unchanged at midday. The TSE 300 is down three points to 11,147. Volume is heavy at 106.3 million shares, and there are some real stocks contributing to that trading activity, too. Volume is split almost evenly between buyers and sellers, while decliners slightly outnumber advancers.
Tech issues opened strongly this morning, but have since surrendered much of those gains. Conglomerates remain the leading group, with some support from engineering firms, auto parts and broadcasters. Chemicals, pipelines and utilities are leading the losers.
At midday, Nortel Networks is up about 50¢ after a couple of days of bloodletting. This is helping support the technology sector, which is seeing gains in Sierra Wireless, JDS Uniphase, Ballard Power and QLT. Slides in names such as Research in Motion and Certicom are muting the trade however.
Sherritt is the top trader today, up 10¢ on 6.9 million shares. Yet there’s no news from the firm. Mining companies Placer Dome and Barrick are active, too, although price moves are small.
Repap continues to lead the paper group. Yet the rest of the sector is weak, with losses in Uniforet, Weyerhaeuser and Bowater.
The financials are also an active group today. TD Bank, Sun Life and CIBC are the hot traders. At midday, TD has moved almost 2 million shares. It was down earlier this morning while CIBC was up, but that trend has now reversed. Sun Life is the only one making a decisive move, down 75¢.
CIBC is reporting record earnings for the third quarter ended July 31, $601 million, up 53% from a year ago. However this was down slightly from the second quarter, due to lower brokerage and investment banking volumes. Earnings per share were $1.47 and return on equity was 23.8%.
Also strong today are some old economy names. Chum is up 5%, leading the broadcasters. It is joined by strong moves in Corby, Canadian Tire, Canadian Pacific, and Alimentation Couche-Tard, which reported strong earnings yesterday.
In other earnings news, reported net income of 19¢ a share, for the period ended July 31. Up from 12¢ in the period last year.
Empire Co Ltd. saw its earnings per share jump to 77¢ a share before capital gains, up from 53¢ in the period last year.
In New York stocks are mixed, reversing yesterday’s trade, with technology up and the Dow down. At midday the Dow is off 38 points to 11,273. The Nasdaq composite is up 75 points to 4,088, and the S&P 500 has gained nine to 1,501.
Profit taking is hitting the blue chips, particularly as merger talk in the financial industry cools. J.P. Morgan has dropped about 3%. A profit warning from Du Pont didn’t help either. Nasdaq though is bouncing back after taking hits over the past few days, with semiconductors leading the way higher.
The CDNX is sliding today, too, off 15 points to 3,605. Volume is strong at 23 million shares. Techs and mines are weak, while oils are the only group moving up. Genoil is the top trader, up 45% to 16¢ on 1.3 million shares.