Market numbers: September 29, 2009

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

The Toronto stock market looked to open slightly lower Tuesday with investors likely to take a pause after sending the TSX sharply higher Monday amid lower oil prices and ahead of key U.S. economic data.

U.S. futures also pointed to a weaker open prior to the release of consumer confidence data, with the Dow Jones down 11 points to 9,717 in premarket trading, the Nasdaq futures off 6.2 points to 1,716.5 and the S&P 500 futures down 1.1 points to 1,057.9.

The Conference Board report is expected to show Americans were more comfortable despite the continuing rise in unemployment. Economists project a reading of 57, up from 54.1 in August. The report is due at 10 a.m. EDT.

The market is also awaiting the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index for July, which looks at 20 of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., due at 9 a.m. EDT.

The Canadian dollar dipped 0.09 of a cent to 91.85 cents US.

The Toronto S&P/TSX composite index ran ahead 126 points on Monday in a broad-based advance which cancelled about half of last week’s 2% decline.

The Dow Jones industrials ran up 124 points in the wake of Abbott Laboratories’ acquisition of the pharmaceutical business of Belgian chemicals maker Solvay for US$6.6 billion and Xerox Corp. agreement to buy Affiliated Computer Services for about $6.4 billion.

The deals helped fuel hopes that the global economy is on a sounder footing – one corollary of increased confidence is an increase in mergers and acquisitions.

"Those deals added some momentum to a market that was beginning to look rather sluggish and lacking direction,” said David Buik, markets analyst at BGC Partners.

TSX energy stocks could show softness at the open Tuesday as the November crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange moved down 64 cents to US$66.20 a barrel. Oil had advanced 82 cents Monday after crude retreated almost 9% last week on demand worries.

Metals were weak as the December bullion contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange faded $4.90 to US$989.20 an ounce while December copper was down two cents to $2.71 a pound.

London’s FTSE 100 index slipped 0.5%, Frankfurt’s DAX was down 0.65% and the Paris CAC 40 stepped back 0.54%.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led the gains in Asia with a two per cent jump while Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average rose 0.9%.

China’s Shanghai index bucked the trend, falling 0.3%.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets

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Dow Jones	9,789.36	+124.17 or +1.28%	+11.54%
S&P 500	1,062.98	+18.60 or +1.78%	+17.68%
NASDAQ	2,130.74	+39.82 or +1.90%	+35.11%
TSX Composite	11,338.72	+126.33 or +1.13%	+26.16%

International markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	10,100.20	+90.68 or +0.91%	+14.00%
Hang Seng	21,013.17	+424.76 or +2.06%	+46.05%
SENSEX	16,852.91	+159.91 or +0.96%	+74.69%
FTSE 100	5,151.24	-14.46 or -0.28%	+16.17%
CAC 40	3,813.97	-11.03 or -0.29%	+18.52%
DAX	5,715.44	-20.87 or -0.36%	+18.82%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	103.48	103.33	3.33
Cdn. 30-year bond	119.32	119.10	3.86
U.S. 10-year bond	102.92	102.50	3.28
U.S. 30-year bond	108.19	106.87	4.03

Currency

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BoC Open	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.9185	0.9195
US $	1.0887	1.0875

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6306	0.6296
Euro	1.5858	1.5883

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$ 991.75	$991.75

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$66.44	-$0.40 or -0.60%

(09/29/09)