Market numbers: Tuesday, June 23, 2009

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

The Toronto stock market is likely in for a slightly higher open, a day after a World Bank report sparked steep selloffs on North American stock markets.

The main S&P/TSX composite index plunged 454 points, or 4.4%, after the World Bank warned the global economic downturn would be deeper than predicted.

The biggest one-day point loss since early December was led by a broadbased selloff led by energy and mining stocks.

Those groups made major contributions to the TSX surging as much as 41 per cent during a spring rally that started in early March.

That rally was based on hopes that the U.S. economy would recover from recession sooner than anticipated. But that optimism has largely dissipated and analysts say investors need clearer evidence that the world economy and company earnings are improving to make sense of stock valuations.

U.S. markets were also expected to stabilize, after the Dow Jones industrial average slumped 2.4% while the broader Standard & Poor’s gave up 3.1% on Monday. Dow futures were up 16 points at 8,299 while S&P 500 futures rose 3.2 points to 891.8.

David Buik, markets analyst at BGC Partners, said the early week selling was perfectly "sensible.” The stock rally since March was clearly “overcooked” and came too soon after a 40% slide in prices during the peak of the financial crisis, he said.

The TSX energy sector is likely headed for a stable opening as the August crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 17 cents to US$67.67 a barrel. A drop of US$2.62 on Monday sent the oil and gas group down more than 6%.

Copper prices rose five cents to US$2.18 a pound, recovering almost half their steep slide Monday which helped send the base metals index down more than 9%.

The August bullion contract in New York rose $2.60 to US$923.60.

The Canadian dollar was slightly lower, down 0.04 of a cent to 86.72 cents US after a strong greenback helped send the loonie down 1.34 U.S. cents on Monday.

The World Bank’s report send Asian stock markets tumbling Tuesday as the gloomy forecast undermined hopes of a quicker end to the worst recession in decades. Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average lost 276.66, or 2.8 per cent, to 9,549.61 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 521.19, or 2.9%, to 17,538.36.

In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 index added 0.3%, Frankfurt’s DAX was up 0.63% while the CAC 40 in Paris moved ahead 0.31%.

In corporate news, fertilizer company Agrium Inc. (TSX:AGU) has extended its offer to buy CF Industries Holdings Inc. (NYSE:CF) to July 22. It says 62 per cent of CF shareholders have tendered their stock to the offer worth more than US$4 billion.

Timminco Ltd. (TSX:TIM) said Monday that it will resume production of silicon metal at its Becancour Silicon facilities due to improved market conditions and demand. The company said it will restart one of its three electric arc furnaces to fulfil newly contracted demand from a long-term customer and recall some of the workers who were temporarily laid off in May.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets

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	Close	Change	YTD
Dow Jones	8,339.01	-200.72 or -2.35%	-4.98%
S&P 500	893.04	-28.19 or -3.06%	-1.13%
NASDAQ	1,766.19	-61.28 or -3.35%	+11.99%
TSX Composite	9,834.18	-453.77 or -4.41%	+9.42%

International markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	9,549.61	-276.66 or -2.82%	+7.79%
Hang Seng	17,538.37	-521.18 or -2.89%	+21.90%
SENSEX	14,324.01	-2.21 or -0.02%	+48.48%
FTSE 100	4,261.29	+27.24 or +0.64%	-3.90%
CAC 40	3,140.13	+16.88 or +0.54%	-2.42%
DAX	4,749.42	+56.02 or +1.19%	-1.26%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	102.68	101.96	3.43
Cdn. 30-year bond	118.59	117.44	3.90
U.S. 10-year bond	95.25	94.67	3.70
U.S. 30-year bond	96.72	95.76	4.45

Currency

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BoC Open	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.8672	0.8676
US $	1.1531	1.1526

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6211	0.6259
Euro	1.6099	1.5976

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$ 920.25	$919.25

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$ 67.40	-$0.10 or -0.15%

(06/23/09)