Market numbers: Friday, July 17, 2009

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

The Toronto stock market appeared headed for a lower open Friday following mixed earning results in the United States and lower commodity prices.

The main TSX index is coming off four days of substantial gains that have yielded 557 points or 5.7% as a string of better than expected earnings reports from the likes of financial giant Goldman Sachs and chip maker Intel Corp. raised hopes for an economic recovery.

Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar was up 0.02 of a cent to 89.53 cents US as Statistics Canada reported that consumer prices fell by 0.3% in June from a year ago, the biggest drop since 1955.

The decline was largely due to a huge retreat in gasoline prices. Prices rose 0.3 % in June _ largely because of a rise in gasoline prices from May to last month.

"Outside of the deep dive in energy, there has actually been precious little major movement in underlying price trends, with core inflation continuing to surprise the Bank of Canada to the high side,” commented BMO Capital Markets deputy chief economist Doug Porter.

"The resiliency in core inflation reinforces the point that deflation is not a major concern for Canada at this point _ the negative headline inflation readings look to be a passing fad.”

On Friday, General Electric was the latest major company to report better-than-expected second-quarter profit. But GE’s revenue fell short of expectations and profit was still down 49% from last year to US$2.6 billion amid continued woes at its finance unit and ongoing weakness in its big industrial units due to the recession.

Bank of America said Friday its earnings after payment of preferred dividends fell to $2.42 billion, or 33 cents per share, compared with a profit of $3.22 billion, or 72 cents per share, in the year ago period.

And Citigroup surprised analysts who had forecast a loss by turning in a profit of $3 billion in the second quarter, largely due to a huge one-time gain from a joint-venture deal at its Smith Barney brokerage.

Google Inc. also reported mixed results after the market closed Thursday. The Internet giant said its second-quarter profit was its biggest since it went public five years ago. However, investors were concerned that revenue growth continued to decelerate.

IBM Corp. reported revenue below expectations, but its profit continued to improve. The computer and technology firm’s second-quarter results were strong enough that it increased its full-year earnings forecast.

U.S. market futures signalled a lower start following four days of advances as the Nasdaq futures headed down 5.75 points to 1,507, the S&P 500 futures were down seven points at 928.7 and the Dow futures headed 48 points lower at 8,621.

The TSX energy sector could be in for selling pressure as the August crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange down 49 cents

Other commodity prices were weak as the September copper contract moved down one cent to US$2.3795 an ounce and the August bullion contract on the Nymex dropped 70 cents to US$934.70 an ounce.

In other corporate news, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (TSX:CP) and about 1,100 of its workers represented by the United Steelworkers have reached a tentative three-year contract settlement.

Bonavista Energy Trust (TSX:BNP.UN) is buying some of EnCana Corp.’s (TSX:ECA) central Alberta natural gas properties for $694 million.

Canadian energy company Oilexco Inc. (TSXV:OIL) said Thursday it has received a court order to liquidate the remainder of its assets and propose a plan for creditors as part of its creditor protection proceedings.

The liquidation is expected to be concluded by Sept. 30.

Most Asian stocks traded higher for a fourth day Friday as better-than-expected earnings in the U.S. continued to buoy recovery hopes, but Indonesian markets were shaken by deadly bomb blasts at hotels in the country’s capital.

Indonesia’s shares initially tumbled more than 2% after a pair of powerful explosions killed nine and wounded at least 50 people at the upscale Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels in Jakarta.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average rose 51.16 points, or 0.6%, to 9,395.32 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 443.79, or 2.4%, at 18,805.66.

London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.45%, Frankfurt’s DAX gained 0.27% while the Paris CAC 40 index was up 0.6%.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets

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	Close	Change	YTD
Dow Jones	8,711.82	+95.61 or +1.11%	-0.74%
S&P 500	940.74	+8.06 or +0.86%	+4.15%
NASDAQ	1,885.03	+22.13 or +1.19%	+19.53%
TSX Composite	10,304.42	+88.96 or +0.87%	+14.65%

International markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	9,395.32	+51.16 or +0.55%	+6.05%
Hang Seng	18,805.66	+494.67 or +3.47%	+30.71%
SENSEX	14,744.92	-2.99 or -0.02%	+52.84%
FTSE 100	4,369.90	+8.06 or +0.18%	-1.45%
CAC 40	3,210.88	+11.20 or +0.35%	-0.22%
DAX	4,967.05	+9.86 or +0.20%	+3.26%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	102.81	102.00	3.41
Cdn. 30-year bond	117.64	116.10	3.95
U.S. 10-year bond	96.37	95.87	3.56
U.S. 30-year bond	96.87	95.75	4.44

Currency

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BoC Open	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.8953	0.8951
US $	1.1169	1.1172

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6357	0.6329
Euro	1.5730	1.5799

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$ 934.50	$935.00

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$61.53	-$0.49 or -0.79%

(07/17/09)