A.M. market numbers for February 4, 2010

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

The Toronto stock market headed for a lower open Thursday with investors cautious ahead of Friday’s key U.S. non-farm payrolls report.

Buying sentiment could also be limited by spreading worry about debt-plagued governments in Europe.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.04 of a cent to 94.17 cents US.

U.S. futures pointed to a negative open with the Dow Jones industrials down 53 points to 10,188, the Nasdaq futures fell 6.5 points to 1,779 while the S&P 500 futures were off 5.9 points to 1,090.5.

The TSX could also be pressured by lower commodity prices as the March crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 63 cents to US$76.35 a barrel.

The April bullion contract was down $8.80 to US$1,102.60 an ounce while March copper was unchanged at US$2.97 a pound.

Investors are hoping to see that Friday’s U.S. jobs data will show the economy added 20,000 jobs during January, with an increase in the jobless rate to 10.1 per cent from 10 per cent.

Stocks rallied early this week on fresh signs surging economic growth at the end of last year was carrying forward into 2010. However, markets fell modestly Wednesday after a report showed the service sector did not expand as fast as expected last month.

Concerns over debt-laden European countries, particularly in Greece, Spain and Portugal, have grown this week.

On Wednesday, the European Commission gave its cautious backing to the Greek government’s plan to slash the budget deficit from around 13 per cent of economic output in 2009 to below three per cent in 2012.

Despite the Commission’s cautious backing, the markets remain unconvinced that Greece can pull it off and are increasingly coming round to the view that Portugal and Spain, in particular, will face mounting difficulties dealing with their own budgetary difficulties. On Wednesday, Portugal cut a planned treasury bill issue and Spain said its deficits will be more than anticipated over the coming three years.

“It would appear the sovereign debt problem is turning into a contagion in the eurozone,” said Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank has left its benchmark interest unchanged at one per cent.

The Bank of England also announced it is keeping its main interest rate unchanged at the record low of 0.5 per cent and said it will not be asking the government for the authority to pump more newly created money into the barely recovering British economy.

Sovereign debt issues pushed London’s FTSE 100 index down 0.72 per cent, Frankfurt’s DAX declined 0.53 per cent while the Paris CAC 40 lost 0.66 per cent.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average fell 0.5 per cent with Toyota continuing to drag on the market as the world’s largest automaker grappled with a global recall.

It closed down 3.5 per cent before announcing after the bell it returned to profit last quarter and had raised its annual earnings forecast. The results, however, didn’t reflect damage from the massive recalls linked to faulty gas pedals

In New York, Toyota shares dropped six per cent Wednesday and were down a further 1.25 per cent in pre-market trading.

Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled 1.8 per cent.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets

Back to Top

	Open	Change	YTD
Dow Jones	10,270.55	-26.30 or -0.26%	-1.51%
S&P 500	1,097.28	-6.04 or -0.55%	-1.60%
NASDAQ	2,190.91	+0.85 or +0.04%	-3.45%
TSX Composite	11,390.46	-17.88 or -0.16%	-3.03%

International markets

Back to Top

	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	10,355.98	-48.35 or -0.46%	-1.35
Hang Seng	20,341.64	-380.44 or -1.84%	-5.26
SENSEX	16,224.95	-271.10 or -1.64%	-5.55
FTSE 100	5,198.56	-54.59 or -1.04%	-2.08
CAC 40	3,752.70	-40.77 or -1.07%	-2.76
DAX	5,619.76	-52.33 or -0.92%	-3.98

Bonds

Back to Top

Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	103.48	103.05	3.31
Cdn. 30-year bond	117.26	116.79	3.96
U.S. 10-year bond	97.72	97.34	3.65
U.S. 30-year bond	96.47	95.94	4.59

Currency

Back to Top

BoC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.9399	0.9413
US $	1.0639	1.0624

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6799	0.6774
Euro	1.4707	1.4762

Commodities

Back to Top

Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$1,102.50	$1,115.25

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$75.90	-$1.08 or -1.4%

(02/4/10)