A.M. market numbers: August 17, 2009

| North American markets | International markets | Bonds | Currency | Commodities |

The Toronto stock market was in for a sharply lower open Monday morning, joining a dismal performance on world markets amid worries about U.S. consumer spending.

Those concerns were apparent at the end of last week after a sharp drop in the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index, which followed a surprisingly weak July retail sales report.

Economic worries pushed the TSX down 0.35% last week, snapping a four-week long winning streak. The slight dip still left the main index up over 40% since the lows of early March.

But after rallying for months on expectations of an economic recovery, investors now fear they’ve been too optimistic given consumers’ continuing reluctance to spend.

U.S. stock futures were also sharply lower as the Dow Jones futures plunged 195 points to 9,126, after the blue chip index stepped back 0.5% last week, the Nasdaq futures dropped 33.5 points to 1,581.5 and the S&P 500 futures fell back 23.4 points to 982.4.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.92 cent to 90.01 cents US after falling almost a cent on Friday.

Asian markets retreated overnight as worries about the consumer outlook in the U.S. reined in hopes about the pace of any global economic recovery – despite the news that Japan has climbed out of recession.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average dropped 3.1%.

Investors seemed little comforted by news that Japan joined Germany and France as developed economies broken free from recession. Japan, the world’s second-largest economy, grew 0.9% in the second quarter compared to the prior quarter as export sales picked up after the country’s deepest slump since World War II.

In China, Shanghai’s benchmark tumbled 5.8% to 2,870.63 amid more jitters about lofty stock prices and a possible tightening of bank lending policies. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dived 3.6%.

London’s FTSE 100 index backed off 2%, Frankfurt’s DAX lost 2.2 per cent and the Paris CAC 40 was down 2.7%.

The TSX will also be pressured by lower energy stocks as oil prices also pulled back amid demand concerns.

The September crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange lost $1.58 to US$65.93 a barrel.

Other commodity prices were also weak with the December gold contract down $11.20 to US$937.50 an ounce while September copper lost eight cents to US$2.76.

A weak report from home-improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos. also discouraged investors.

The company said Monday poor weather and cautious consumer spending caused sales to fall below expectations and earnings to fall 19% in the second quarter.

The company also plans to scale back new store openings in its next fiscal year in response to the poor economy and consumer pullback.

In other earnings news, high-hazard protective equipment maker Allen-Vanguard Corp. (TSX:VRS) said Monday impairment charges contributed to widening losses in the third quarter while a delay of some U.S. programs led to revenue levels that fell short of expectations. The company turned in a net loss of $99.2 million for the quarter ended June 30, almost tripling year-earlier losses of $36.6 million.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets

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Dow Jones	9,398.19	+36.58 or +0.39%	+7.08%
S&P 500	1,012.73	+6.92 or +0.69%	+12.12%
NASDAQ	2,009.35	+10.63 or +0.53%	+27.41%
TSX Composite	10,825.56	+165.69 or +1.55%	+20.45%

International markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	10,268.61	-328.72 or -3.10%	+15.90%
Hang Seng	20,137.65	-755.68 or -3.62%	+39.97%
SENSEX	14,784.92	-626.71 or -4.07%	+53.25%
FTSE 100	4,632.63	-81.34 or -1.73%	+4.48%
CAC 40	3,417.35	-77.92 or -2.23%	+6.20%
DAX	5,202.62	-106.49 or -2.01%	+8.16%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	102.05	101.95	3.50
Cdn. 30-year bond	117.19	116.79	3.97
U.S. 10-year bond	100.22	95.30	3.60
U.S. 30-year bond	97.14	95.95	4.42

Currency

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BoC Open	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.9001	0.9183
US $	1.1109	1.0890

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6407	0.6431
Euro	1.5609	1.5555

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$ 937.50	$953.50

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$66.05	-$1.46 or -2.16%

(08/17/09)