A.M. market numbers: August 25, 2009

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

North American stock markets looked set for a higher open Tuesday as Bank of Montreal kicked off the banks’ earnings season by beating expectations, while investors were relieved at reports that U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke will be reappointed for another term.

Bank of Montreal reported net income of $557 million or 97 cents a share for the quarter ended July 31, up from $521 million recorded the year before and beating expectations of 95 cents a share.

Quarterly revenue climbed 8% to $2.97 billion, while the bank’s tier one capital ratio rose to 11.71%. The bank says it is keeping its quarterly dividend fixed at 70 cents per share.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.08 of a cent to 92.93 cents US.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial futures were up 47 points to 9,540 after a senior administration source said that President Barack Obama plans to reappoint Bernanke to a second term as head of the central bank.

Bernanke is widely credited with taking aggressive action to avert an economic catastrophe after the financial meltdown last year and will reportedly be nominated for another term as the helm of the Fed later Tuesday.

The Nasdaq futures headed up 7.8 points to 1,641.6 while the S&P 500 futures were ahead 5.6 points to 1,030.

The Toronto market is coming off a 41-point loss following four days of advances because of a late-day decline in financial stocks. All of the major Canadian banks are reporting this week.

The energy sector on the TSX could show weakness at the open with the October crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange down 16 cents to US$74.21 a barrel.

Other commodity prices were mixed as the December bullion contract on the NYMEX gained $6 to US$949.70 an ounce while September copper slipped four cents to US$2.88 a pound.

Investors will be taking in a key measure of U.S. consumer confidence later in the morning.

Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expect the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence index to rise to 47.5 from 46.6 in July. A reading above 90 means the economy is on solid footing.

A recovery among consumers is considered vital to any potential economic rebound because their spending accounts for more than two-thirds of all economic activity.

Traders also get a key report on house prices. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price index, which measures changes in home prices in 20 major metropolitan markets, is expected to show that prices fell 16.5% in June, compared with the year-ago period. That would be a slight improvement from the 17.1% decline in May.

In overseas trading, China’s main Shanghai Composite Index slid as much as 5% at one point before paring losses. It closed down 2.6% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was off 0.5% with investors were unsettled by comments from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who said his country faced new economic problems and that stimulus measures will be left in place because the recovery lacked a solid foundation.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average lost 0.8%.

London’s FTSE 100 index dipped 0.09%, Frankfurt’s DAX added 0.12% while the Paris CAC 40 inched up 0.05%.

In other corporate news, Absolute Software Corp. said Tuesday an income tax recovery helped propel the company to a fourth quarter profit of $16.5 million, reversing a year-earlier loss of $2.3 million. Quarterly revenue climbed 28% to $14.3 million, while top line performance for the fiscal year improved 41% to $53.2 million.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets

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Dow Jones	9,509.28	+3.32 or +0.03%	+8.35%
S&P 500	1,025.57	-0.56 or -0.05%	+13.54%
NASDAQ	2,017.98	-2.92 or -0.14%	+27.96%
TSX Composite	10,789.97	-41.21 or -0.38%	+20.05%

International markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	10,497.36	-83.69 or -0.79%	+18.49%
Hang Seng	20,435.24	-100.70 or -0.49%	+42.03%
SENSEX	15,688.47	+59.72 or +0.38%	+62.62%
FTSE 100	4,899.32	+3.09 or +0.06%	+10.49%
CAC 40	3,657.40	+5.23 or +0.14%	+13.66%
DAX	5,530.48	+10.73 or +0.19%	+14.97%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	102.70	103.06	3.42
Cdn. 30-year bond	118.39	118.79	3.91
U.S. 10-year bond	101.09	101.75	3.49
U.S. 30-year bond	103.72	104.59	4.28

Currency

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BoC Open	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.9293	0.9285
US $	1.0760	1.0770

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6488	0.6496
Euro	1.5413	1.5395

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$947.50	$951.50

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$74.20	-$0.17 or -0.23%

(08/25/09)