The Canadian Press

Falling commodity prices helped push the Toronto stock market slightly lower Tuesday.

The S&P/TSX composite index lost 12.1 points to 11,622.7. A 75-point decline on Monday broke an eight-day string of gains that had sent the TSX up over 5% on an improved outlook for the American economy.

Investors are hoping to find further evidence of strength when the U.S. Conference Board releases its latest reading of consumer confidence later in the morning.

The private sector group is expected to show consumer confidence fell slightly in February, after three straight months of gains. Its consumer confidence index likely fell to 55 from 55.9, according to economists polled by Thomson Reuters.

The reading still falls well short of what is considered strong — a reading above 90 means the economy is on solid footing.

The Canadian dollar moved down 0.07 of a cent to US95.84¢.

The TSX energy sector lost 0.16% as oil prices fell back from the US$80 a barrel level Tuesday after rallying 15% over the last three weeks on hopes that improving economic conditions would lead to higher demand. A higher U.S. dollar helped send the April crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange down $1.08 to US$79.23 a barrel. Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) backed off 19¢ to $31.36.

The base metals sector lost almost 1% with the March copper contract off 4¢ to US$3.27 a pound. Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B) slipped 31¢ to $39.41.

The TSX gold sector was down 0.21% as the April gold contract on the Nymex eased $1.10 to US$1,112 an ounce

The financials sector was 0.33% lower with Royal Bank (TSX:RY) down 43¢ to $56.17.

On the plus side, Home Depot Inc. turned in a fiscal fourth-quarter profit while the home improvement retailer also boosted its quarterly dividend for the first time since 2006 and gave a 2010 profit forecast above analysts’ expectations.

The company earned US$342 million, or 20¢ per share, for the quarter, a sharp turnaround from a US$54 million loss a year ago. Sales dipped 0.3% to US$14.57 billion and its shares gained 19¢ to US$30.51.

Kmart shoppers and cost-cutting helped Sears Holdings Corp. boost its profit as the retailer posted its best quarterly profit in three years.

The owner of Sears and Kmart says it earned US$430 million, or US$3.74 per share, during the fourth quarter. That’s up from a profit of US$190 million, or $1.55 per share, during the same period last year. The retailer’s shares advanced $3.54 to US$99.20 as revenue for the quarter dipped less than 1% to US$13.25 billion.

Meanwhile Sears Canada Inc. (TSX:SCC) handed in a C$128.2-million profit in its most recent quarter, a 29% increase from the year-earlier period. The Toronto-based retailer’s revenue fell 5.6% to $1.525 billion while same-store sales decreased by 1.7%. Sears Canada shares rose 25¢ to $26.

The TSX Venture Exchange was up 1.23 points to 1,529.69.

New York markets were also weak even as other data showed that American home prices rose nationally for the seventh straight month in December.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 0.3% from November to December, to a seasonally adjusted reading of 145.87. The index was off 3.1% from December last year, nearly matching analysts’ estimates that it would fall by 3.2%.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 9.1 points to 10,374.3 after easing 19 points on Monday.

The Nasdaq composite index moved 4.89 points lower to 2,237.14 while the S&P 500 index was off 2.15 points to 1,105.85.

The most crucial event this week across all markets though is likely to be what U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke tells U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday and Thursday — in particular what he says about last week’s decision by the Fed to raise its discount rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 0.75%. The discount rate is the rate banks pay for emergency loans from the Fed.

In other earnings news, Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. (TSX:TRP) shares climbed 3¢ to $34.62 after it reported its dividend will go up following a 37.5% improvement in fourth-quarter profit to $381 million.

TransCanada increased its quarterly dividend to 40¢ per share, the equivalent of $1.60 per year, up 5%. The company’s revenue declined 5.4% to $2.2 billion.

Canadian bakery giant George Weston Ltd. (TSX:WN) says its net earnings slid to $82 million in the fourth quarter. That’s down sharply from $405 million a year ago when it booked gains from the sale of its Neilson Dairy business. Quarterly sales fell 6.4% to $7.5 billion, also impacted by the sale of the dairy division and its shares declined 8¢ to $70.62.

@page_break@Traders also took in a surprisingly weak reading on German business confidence.

The Ifo Institute reported that its business climate index for Germany — Europe’s largest economy — fell to 95.2 in February from 95.8 the previous month.

The fall was the first in nearly a year.

It comes in the wake of similarly pessimistic reports from the likes of the ZEW institute and mounting evidence elsewhere that the recovery in the 16 country eurozone has been hit by the debt crisis that is afflicting Greece and threatening to spill over into other countries, such as Spain and Portugal.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index lost 0.5% while Hong Kong gained 1.2%.

London’s FTSE 100 inched 0.14% lower, Frankfurt’s DAX moved down 0.71% while the Paris CAC 40 index declined 0.45%.