A.M. market numbers: January 7, 2009

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

The Toronto stock market could be headed for a weak open after five positive sessions amid lower oil prices. Investors are also looking to December retail figures in the U.S. and awaiting key employment data on Friday.

The Canadian dollar was unchanged at 96.85 cents US.

U.S. futures pointed to a lower open with the Dow Jones futures down 29 points to 10,487, the Nasdaq futures slipped six points to 1,872 and the S&P 500 figures declined 3.7 points to 1,129.3.

Oil prices are taking a break after closing above the US$83 a barrel level Wednesday for the first time since the fall of 2008 despite a report showing that U.S. inventories ran up 1.3 million barrels last week. Oil has surged almost 12% in the past month on a weakening U.S. dollar and hopes for higher demand based on improving economic data.

On Thursday, the February crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange stepped back 82 cents to US$82.36 a barrel.

Other commodities were weak with the February gold contract on the Nymex down $7.20 to US$1,129.30 an ounce while March copper slipped four cents to US$3.45 a pound.

U.S. retailers are reporting modest holiday gains. Several are raising profit outlooks because they didn’t have to resort to drastic price-cutting because of lean inventories.

As merchants report results Thursday, warehouse club operator Costco Wholesale Corp., The Buckle and Children’s Place Retail Stores Inc. are reporting gains.

Even Sears Holdings Corp. is announcing a small increase because of strength at Kmart stores. Sears and Limited Brands are among retailers raising profit outlooks. Stragglers included jewelry chain Zale Corp.

Meanwhile, investors are cautious ahead of Friday’s U.S. government’s monthly employment report. Economists forecast the unemployment rate will rise to 10.1% from 10% and employers will shed 8,000 jobs.

The employment news, if worse than expected, could intensify concerns that the economy’s recovery is losing steam.

Potash companies including Potash Corp. and Agrium will be in focus with some of the largest producers refusing to meet Chinese demands for lower prices in a key contract. European producers recently reached a deal with China to sell the nutrient at about US$350 a tonne, about half the previous price. But North American producers are resisting Chinese demands for a similar break, believing that there will be a rebound in the currently depressed market.

Investors will also be looking at Magna International. The auto parts giant is getting into the mining sector by participating in a $10.5 million equity financing by Toronto-based Lithium Americas Corp. Electric powered vehicles in the future will run on lithium-ion batteries.

Overseas, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock average lost 0.5% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.7%.

London’s FTSE 100 index was off 0.16%, Frankfurt’s DAX was down 0.52% and the Paris CAC 40 was flat.

In other corporate news, Goldcorp Inc. says it will to acquire a 70% interest in the El Morro copper-gold project in Chile, currently owned by a subsidiary of Xstrata PLC, through a half-billion-dollar deal with New Gold Inc.

Telus Corp. has sold its Assure card processing business, which handles credit and debit transactions between merchants and financial institutions, to CT-Payment Inc. of Repentigny, Que. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. CT-Payment, a subsidiary of Central Tax Inc., said Thursday that its volume will rise above 110 million transactions annually with the addition of the Telus business unit.

Coalcorp Mining Inc. has agreed to sell its Columbian La Francia mine, related infrastructure and Adromi Capital Corp. to a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs Group for US$150 million cash.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets

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	Open	Change	2009 Full Year
Dow Jones	10,573.68	+1.66 or +0.02%	+1.40%
S&P 500	1,137.14	+0.62 or +0.05%	+1.98%
NASDAQ	2,301.09	-7.62 or -0.33%	+1.41%
TSX Composite	11,944.54	+56.46 or +0.47%	+1.69%

International markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	10,681.66	-49.79 or -0.46%	+1.28%
Hang Seng	22,269.45	-147.22 or -0.66%	+1.81%
SENSEX	17,615.72	-85.41 or -0.48%	+0.86%
FTSE 100	5,521.79	-8.25 or -0.15%	+2.01%
CAC 40	4,006.10	-11.57 or -0.29%	+1.77%
DAX	6,001.34	-32.99 or -0.55%	+0.74%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	101.13	101.56	3.61
Cdn. 30-year bond	114.12	115.20	4.13
U.S. 10-year bond	96.25	96.72	3.84
U.S. 30-year bond	94.88	95.88	4.69

Currency

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BoC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.9686	0.9638
US $	1.0324	1.0376

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6758	0.6710
Euro	1.4798	1.4903

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$1,130.75	$1,130.00

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$82.40	-$0.78 or -0.94%

(01/07/10)