Market numbers: Monday, July 13, 2009

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

The Toronto stock market appeared headed for a flat open Monday following a bruising week, as investors looked ahead to a slew of U.S. earnings reports during the week.

The main TSX index sustained a plunge of 536 points or 5.2% last week on worries about the pace of an economic recovery, underscored by little change in commodity prices.

Those worries raised new questions about demand prospects, forcing the price of oil down over 10%, finishing the week below US$60 a barrel. On Monday morning, the August crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was up 19 cents to US$60.08.

The Canadian dollar was ahead 0.19 of a cent to 86.05 cents US.

U.S. futures pointed to a mixed opening with investors awaiting earnings reports from some of the largest financial firms this week. Banks have been among the hardest hit companies since the recession began in late 2007 as investment and loan losses piled up.

The largest banks in the U.S. – Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. – are all scheduled to report second-quarter results this week.

Commercial finance lender CIT Group Inc., meanwhile, said late Sunday it is talking with regulators about ways to improve its short-term liquidity as recent losses may jeopardize its compliance with capital requirements.

Earnings reports are also expected from major companies in non-financial industries as well this week, including Dow Jones industrial average components Johnson & Johnson, International Business Machines Corp. and General Electric Co. and technology bellwethers Intel Corp. and Google Inc.

The earnings results will give investors a chance to see if there was any meaningful economic improvement during the second quarter.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow futures fell 20 points or 0.25% at 8,065 after the blue-chip index stepped back 1.6% last week. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures gained one points or 0.11% at 875.3, while Nasdaq 100 index futures were ahead 2.5 points or 0.18% at 1,418.5.

Asian markets extended their slide Monday amid new political uncertainty in Japan and worries over earnings results from major U.S. companies.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock average tumbled 236.95 points, or 2.6%, to 9,050.33 amid reports that Prime Minister Taro Aso will likely dissolve the powerful lower house next week and that national elections would take place Aug. 30.

That nearly six-week gap was too long for comfort, analysts said.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 453.79, or 2.6%, to 17254.63.

The August bullion contract in New York rose 50 cents to US$913 an ounce while the September copper contract added two cents to US$2.23 a pound.

In other corporate news, investor RHJ International says it is in advanced negotiations with General Motors Corp. on taking a majority stake in the U.S. automaker’s European Opel unit.

RHJ, also known as Ripplewood, says discussions with GM "have been taking place over a number of weeks and are at an advanced stage.”

Talks with RHJ have been taking place alongside negotiations with Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc. (TSX:MG.A) and Russia’s Sberbank to rescue Opel.

Hundreds of union workers at Vale Inco’s nickel operations in Sudbury, Ont., are on strike. More than 2,600 Vale mining and processing workers represented by the United Steelworkers in Sudbury rejected the company’s contract offer in voting on Friday and Saturday.

At issue was Vale’s proposal to reduce a bonus tied to the price of nickel.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets

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	Close	Change	YTD
Dow Jones	8,146.52	-36.65 or -0.45%	-7.18%
S&P 500	879.13	-3.55 or -0.40%	-2.67%
NASDAQ	1,756.03	+3.48 or +0.20%	+11.35%
TSX Composite	9,747.13	-26.79 or -0.27%	+8.45%

International markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	9,050.33	-236.95 or -2.55%	+2.15%
Hang Seng	17,254.63	-453.79 or -2.56%	+19.93%
SENSEX	13,400.32	-103.90 or -0.77%	+38.90%
FTSE 100	4,165.46	+38.29 or +0.93%	-6.06%
CAC 40	3,011.82	+28.72 or +0.96%	-6.41%
DAX	4,635.14	+58.83 or +1.29%	-3.64%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	104.06	103.80	3.27
Cdn. 30-year bond	119.51	119.35	3.85
U.S. 10-year bond	98.59	97.81	3.29
U.S. 30-year bond	100.97	99.64	4.19

Currency

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BoC Open	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.8605	0.8587
US $	1.1621	1.1647

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6167	0.6155
Euro	1.6215	1.6246

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$ 908.50	$913.00

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$59.92	+$0.03 or +0.05%

(07/13/09)