Toronto Stocks Poised To Open Higher On Commodities, EarningsBay Street stocks may open higher Thursday amid recovery in commodities prices and encouraging earnings reports from both sides of the border. Commodities recovered despite China said its economic growth rate slowed in the second quarter.
Close on the heels of Alcoa and Intel. JPMorgan Chase reported market-beating second quarter earnings. The first bank to report this earnings season recorded a profit of $1.09 per share. Analysts were expecting the company to report earnings of $0.70 per share.
On Wednesday, the S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 52.68 points or 0.45% to 11,620.16.
The price of crude oil edged up $0.17 to $77.21 a barrel. Wednesday's data from the EIA revealed U.S. crude inventories declined 5.1 million barrels in the week ended July 9, as against analysts' estimates for a draw down of 2 million barrel.
Meanwhile, the OPEC in its monthly report released today, said global oil demand will increase by 1.2% to 1.05 million barrels a day in 2011 to average 86.41 million barrels a day, largely led by developing economies such as China and India.
The price of gold moved up amid a weak U.S. dollar after the Federal Reserve cut its U.S. GDP growth outlook. Gold for August was up $6.80 to $1,213.80 an ounce.
In international M&A news, private equity firm The Carlyle Group said it will buy vitamin maker NBTY Inc. for $3.8 billion in cash.
In corporate news from Canada, oil and gas firm Nexen Inc. reported improved second-quarter net income of C$0.49 per share, compared to C$0.04 per share in the same quarter last year. The company declared a regular quarterly dividend of C$0.05 per common share.
Interactive whiteboards maker SMART Technologies said it priced the initial public offering of 38.83 million of its Class A Subordinate Voting Shares at $17.00 per share. The shares will will begin trading on Thursday, July 15, on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol 'SMT', and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 'SMA'.
Therapeutic company Amorfix Life Sciences said Biogen Idec will receive the exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize its Disease Specific Epitopes antibodies. Amorfix will receive an up-front payment of $1 million and is eligible to receive milestone payments and royalties on sales.
Gold explorer Crown Minerals said it will be merged with Gold Summit Corp. to form a new company, Amalco.
Media company Astral Media said its third-quarter net earnings improved to C$0.85 per share from C$0.78 per share a year ago.
Media company Score Media reported net income of C$568 thousand or C$0.01 per share for the third quarter, compared to C$12 thousand or C$0.00 per share in the year-ago quarter.
Gaming software services provider CryptoLogic Ltd. said it expects second quarter total revenue to show a slight decline over first quarter and added its outlook for the full year is much less encouraging than at the time of the first quarter results announcement.
Oil and natural gas firm Sterling Resources said it has appointed David Blewden as its CFO, replacing Ian Hornby-Smith who is retiring.
Railway industry services provider Global Railway Industries said it will be selling G&B Specialties, Inc., and Bach-Simpson Corp to Wabtec Corp. for about $45 million.
Engineering consultancy services company Rutter Inc. slipped in to red, reporting third-quarter net loss of C$0.001 per share, compared with a net income C$0.0045 per share in the same quarter last year.
In economic news, Statistics Canada said manufacturing sales advanced 0.4% to C$44.80 billion in May, recording growth for the eighth time in nine months. The motor vehicle and parts industries were the primary contributor for higher sales.In another report, the agency said, the number of new motor vehicle sales edged up 0.2% to 126,475 in units in May, with higher sales of truck offsetting lower passenger car sales.
From the U.S., the Labor Department said that initial jobless claims came in at 429,000 for the week ended July 10, down 29,000 from the previous week's revised total of 458,000. Economists were expecting claims to come in at around 450,000.
The Federal Reserve yesterday revised down its U.S. gross domestic product growth estimates to between 3% and 3.5% in the current year, from its previous estimate of increase by 3.2% to 3.7%.
Meanwhile today, China said its economy expanded by 10.3% in the second quarter over a year ago, after expanding 11.9% in the first quarter 2010.
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