A.M. numbers: September 09, 2009

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

The Toronto stock market could benefit from energy stocks at the open on Wednesday as a weaker American currency continued to send oil prices higher.

U.S. stocks headed toward a flat opening as the Dow Jones industrials inched up two points to 9,498, the Nasdaq futures declined 2.5 points to 1,652.8 while the S&P 500 futures added 0.8 of a point to 1,025.9.

The TSX is coming off an 88-point rise on Tuesday largely fuelled by energy and metals prices pushed up by a sliding greenback, which was hovering near lows for the year against the euro and a two-month low against the yen.

The U.S. dollar a typical safe haven has been hurt by a rise in stock markets and a general improvement in investors’ risk appetite after world governments said they would continue to support the global recovery and corporate merger activity picked up.

Still, analysts are not sure how far the dollar can fall, particularly since doubts still linger about the strength of recovery in world economies.

The Canadian dollar was down slightly after three days of gains pushed the loonie more than two U.S. cents higher. The currency was down 0.05 cent to 92.59 cents US.

The October crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 23 cents to US$71.33 after charging ahead just over US$3 on Tuesday.

Investors are looking to the meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces about 40% of the world’s output.

Kuwait’s oil minister, Sheik Ahmed Al Abullah Al Sabah, said OPEC’s markets monitoring committee would suggest to the 12-country group that oil output targets be held steady at the organization’s Wednesday meeting in Vienna.

The December bullion contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange moved down 80 cents to US$999 an ounce while December copper shed one cent to US$2.94 a pound.

Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX:ABX), the world’s biggest gold company, will be in focus after announcing plans late Tuesday to eliminate all of its gold hedges and raise US$3 billion in an offering of shares to help pay for the move. The company said it made the decision because of an increasingly positive outlook on the gold price.

Later in the session, investors will get a snapshot of U.S. business conditions from the Federal Reserve. The Fed’s report, known as the beige book, tracks economic activity by region and is due at 2 p.m. EDT.

In overseas trading, Asian indexes dropped, as its export-heavy economies like those in Europe suffered from the weaker dollar, which makes it harder for them to sell in the U.S. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock average closed down 0.8% while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng declined 1% and China’s benchmark Shanghai index recovered losses to gain 0.5%.

London’s FTSE 100 index added 0.7%, Frankfurt’s DAX gained 0.6 per cent while the Paris CAC 40 was up 0.53%.

In other corporate news, Canada’s largest sporting goods retailer cited the recession, poor summer weather, the restructuring of some of its stores and the distraction of a proxy fight for dismal returns in the second-quarter of fiscal 2010. The Forzani Group Ltd. (TSX:FGL), with more than 550 corporate and franchise stores across Canada under 16 banners, said Tuesday it suffered a loss of $4.4 million or 14 cents a share in the quarter.

McDonald’s says sales in established stores rose 2.2% globally in August, helped by strong results in Europe.

Kraft Foods says it plans to focus on higher-margin, priority brands to boost productivity in Europe and will continue to cut costs. Kraft will focus on brands such as Oreos, Carte Noire coffee and Philadelphia cream cheese to help boost European organic revenue growth between one and 3%.

Kraft expects operating income margins will rise to the mid-teens by 2011, up from 12.3% in 2008.

Earlier this week, Kraft disclosed it had offered US$16.7 billion in cash and stock for British candy maker Cadbury PLC. Cadbury rejected the offer, saying it wasn’t high enough.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets

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Dow Jones	9,497.34	+56.07 or +0.59%	+8.21%
S&P 500	1,025.39	+8.99 or +0.88%%	+13.52%
NASDAQ	2,037.77	+18.99 or +0.94%	+29.22%
TSX Composite	11,105.30	+87.83 or +0.80%	+23.56%

International markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	10,312.14	-81.09 or -0.78%	+16.40%
Hang Seng	20,851.04	-218.77 or -1.04%	+44.92%
SENSEX	16,183.55	+59.88 or +0.37%	+67.75%
FTSE 100	4,991.90	+44.56 or +0.90%	+12.58%
CAC 40	3,688.19	+27.23 or +0.74%	+14.61%
DAX	5,531.63	+49.90 or +0.91%	+15.00%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	102.93	103.46	3.39
Cdn. 30-year bond	118.14	119.19	3.92
U.S. 10-year bond	101.28	102.39	3.47
U.S. 30-year bond	103.18	105.75	4.31

Currency

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BoC Open	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0. 9259	0.9264
US $	1.0800	1.0794

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6381	0.6389
Euro	1.5673	1.5651

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$ 995.75	$1000.75

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$71.78	+$0.68 or +0.96%

(09/09/09)