P.M. market numbers: December 4, 2009

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

The Toronto stock market closed lower Friday as strength in the greenback punished commodity stocks and Royal Bank lost ground even as the bank met expectations in its latest earnings report.

The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 125.75 points to 11,510.8, weighed down by a sharp decline in the gold sector. The TSX finished up 46.39 points or 0.4% on the week

The U.S. dollar posted gains as the U.S. Labour Department said 11,000 people lost their jobs last month, far below the 120,000 that had been expected. The jobless rate came in at 10%, down from 10.2% in October.

There were also major revisions to earlier data — 159,000 fewer Americans lost their jobs in September and October than originally reported.

"This may be the point where people really start to feel good about the economy and the people who have been calling for the sky to fall will start changing their mind," said Paul Thornton of Investor Boot Camp Online.

In Canada, 79,000 jobs were created last month while the unemployment rate moved down one-tenth of a point to 8.5% in November, according to Statistics Canada. Economists had been looking for a drop in employment of 43,000.

Full-time jobs rose by 39,000, the third month of gains in a row, and part-time jobs also went up by 40,000 after two months of losses.

The rising greenback reversed early Canadian dollar gains, with the loonie down 0.28 of a US cent to 94.53 cents US.

Shares of Royal Bank fell $1.50 or 2.6% to $55.98 after it reported its fourth-quarter profit rose 10% from a year ago to $1.2 billion. The bank credited strong performance from Canadian banking, capital markets, wealth management and insurance, which offset losses in its international operations.

Provisions for credit losses rose to $883 million, up from $619 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, due in part to credit issues in its U.S. banking business. But, like other banks, its provision for credit losses narrowed from the third quarter to the fourth.

Overall, the financial services sector in Toronto was down 0.56%.

The sector also failed to respond to solid earnings Thursday from CIBC and TD Bank, but analysts have pointed out that bank shares were already up on anticipation of a recovery in bank earnings.

"We had BMO out last week, which materially surprised on the upside," said John Aiken, an analyst at Barclays Capital, referring to a Bank of Montreal’s earnings report last week which beat expectations.

"Then the share prices (of all the Canadian banks) rose and everybody was happy. But the problem is, as that happens, you start to bake in greater expectations. What you’ve got now is a bit of a letdown in terms of expectations."

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up a slight 22.75 points to 10,388.9 — for a gain of 78.98 points or 0.77% this week — as the latest sign of economic strength raised worries about higher interest rates.

The Nasdaq composite index climbed 21.21 points to 2,194.35 while the S&P 500 index rose 6.06 points to 1,105.98 as U.S. markets also suffered from lower commodity stocks.

U.S. markets had also received buoyancy from news that orders to U.S. factories unexpectedly rose in October, the sixth gain in the past seven months. The Commerce Department says orders rose 0.6% in October, much better than the flat reading that economists had expected.

The TSX Venture Exchange moved 11.15 points lower to 1,450.46.

The gold sector was a major weight on the TSX, down 5.5% as the February bullion contract on the Nymex lost $48.80 from its most recent record close to US$1,169.50 an ounce. Goldcorp Inc. fell $2.82 to $44.66.

"The U.S. employment numbers came out where they were and what we have is the American dollar gaining," said Bob Tebbutt, vice president at Peregrine Financial Group Canada.

"But it sort of said this: gee, American dollar is going, and gee I made a lot of profits, gee it’s Friday — sell gold. Take my profits and run."

Barrick Gold fell $4.32 or 8.74% to $45.10 after a U.S. appeals court partly overturned a lower court decision that had denied an environmentalist injunction that would have affected its Cortez mine in Nevada. The groups want the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to do additional environmental analysis of the mining operation.

The world’s largest gold producer said it was evaluating the decision, but did not immediately announce any suspensions at the operation.

The base metals sector was down 2.19% as March copper slipped three quarters of a cent at US$3.24 a pound. Teck Resources declined 95 cents to $36.55.

The TSX energy sector dropped 0.76% as the December crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 99 cents to US$75.47 a barrel. The decline followed two days of losses resulting from a report Wednesday that showed a big buildup in crude inventories in the U.S. last week. Suncor Inc. dropped $1.20 to $37.91.

The tech sector was the strongest advancer, up 1.9% with Celestica Inc. ahead 27 cents to $8.84.

The industrials sector also lifted the TSX, up 1.09% with Canadian National Railways ahead $1.52 to $57.18.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Dow Jones	10,388.90	+22.75 or +0.22%	+18.37%
S&P 500	1,105.89	+5.97 or +0.54%	+22.43%
NASDAQ	2,194.35	+21.21 or +0.98%	+39.14%
TSX Composite	11,510.80	-125.75 or -1.08%	+28.07%

International markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	10,022.59	+44.92 or +0.45%	+13.13%
Hang Seng	22,498.15	-55.72 or -0.25%	+56.37%
SENSEX	17,101.54	-84.14 or -0.49%	+77.27%
FTSE 100	5,322.36	+9.36 or +0.18%	+20.03%
CAC 40	3,846.62	+47.51 or +1.25%	+19.54%
DAX	5,817.65	+47.30 or +0.82%	+20.94%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	103.53	104.18	3.31
Cdn. 30-year bond	118.35	119.05	3.91
U.S. 10-year bond	99.13	100.01	3.48
U.S. 30-year bond	99.44	100.72	4.41

Currency

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BoC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.9453	0.9481
US $	1.0579	1.0547

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6367	0.6290
Euro	1.5705	1.5899

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$1,203.25	$1,190.25

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$75.69	-$0.77 or -1.01%

(12/04/09)