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Traders wait for the opening price of Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc., during the company's IPO on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, shortly after the opening bell in the Manhattan borough of New York January 23, 2014.LUCAS JACKSON/Reuters

The Toronto stock market advanced Tuesday amid earnings misses and an executive shakeup in the U.S. retail sector.

The S&P/TSX composite index was ahead 33.54 points to 14,458.28, led by gains in the industrial and gold sectors.

The Canadian dollar dropped 0.4 of a cent to 91.71 cents US.

U.S. indexes were in the red with the Dow Jones industrials down 33.61 points to 16,478.25, the Nasdaq declined 9.88 points to 4,115.94 and the S&P 500 index was down 2.98 points to 1,882.1.

Target has fired the president of its troubled Canadian operations, Tony Fisher, and is replacing him with 15-year U.S. company veteran Mark Schindele, who was senior vice president of merchandising operations. Target is trying to fix its flailing operations in Canada, its first foray outside the U.S. It is also trying to recover from a massive data breach in the U.S. that has cost it customers' trust. Target shares were down 67 cents to $57.62 (U.S.).

Home Depot's fiscal first-quarter net income climbed 12 per cent to $1.38-billion, or $1 per share, compared with $1.23-billion, or 83 cents per share, a year earlier. However, earnings ex-items amounted to 96 cents per share, three cents short of estimates. Revenue for the Atlanta company rose three per cent to $19.69-billion, but missed estimates of $19.97-billion. The No. 1 home improvement retailer in the U.S. also raised its full-year earnings forecast and its shares gained 2.3 per cent to $78.26.

Office-supplies company Staples posted an adjusted first-quarter profit of 18 cents a share, three cents below expectations. The company also expects to post charges of $105-million to $155-million, related to continuing restructuring during its second quarter and its shares retreated 10.7 per cent to $11.95.

The quarterly earnings season in Canada has pretty much wound up and now traders are waiting for results from the big Canadian banks this week and next.

Royal Bank and TD Bank kick off the stream of earnings on Thursday and analysts are expecting another solid if unspectacular quarter.

Analysts don't believe the earnings will yield another leg up in stock prices for the big banks, all of which are very close to their 52-week highs. At the same time, the financial sector has been one of the weakest performers this year despite strong profits and is up just 1.7 per cent year to date.

The industrials sector led TSX gainers, up 0.7 per cent.

On the commodity markets, June bullion faded $5 to $1,288.80 an ounce and the gold sector gained 0.5 per cent.

The energy sector rose 0.35 per cent, while June crude contract in New York lost early gains and declined 28 cents to $102.33 a barrel.

The base metals sector rose 0.3 per cent with July copper off three cents to $3.13 a pound.

The showing on stock markets Tuesday follows a week where North American markets stalled with both the TSX and New York losing slight ground for the week. Analysts point out that stocks are by and large fairly valued and investors are looking for earnings to move higher before taking shares higher.

Economic conditions are also a worry, particularly after figures from Europe last showed that growth in the euro zone economy is weaker than thought.

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