John Chen, chief executive officer of BlackBerry Ltd., speaks on a Passport smartphone during a Bloomberg Television interview at a product announcement in Toronto on Sept. 24.Hannah Yoon/Bloomberg
The Toronto stock market was in positive territory Friday after a string of solid gains as investors continue to buy up stocks oversold during the course of a fall selloff.
The S&P/TSX composite index was ahead 55.49 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 14,402.24 after charging ahead about 650 points over the last three sessions.
BlackBerry was a drag on the TSX as the smartphone maker posted an a profit of one cent a share, after adjustments, beating expectations for a loss of five cents a share. The company narrowed its net loss to $148-million (U.S.) or 28 cents, an improvement from a year ago loss of $4.4-billion or $8.39 in the same period a year ago. BlackBerry's revenue was $793-million versus analyst predictions of $931-million, and down from $1.19-billion a year ago. Its stock fell 89 cents or 7.63 to $10.78 on the TSX and down 79 cents or 7.84 per cent to $9.28 in New York.
The Canadian dollar was down 0.05 of a cent to 86.18 cents (U.S.) amid a weaker than expected read on inflation. Statistics Canada's consumer price index rose two per cent in the 12 months to November, following a 2.4 per cent increase in October. Economists had been looking for November's inflation rate to be 2.2 per cent.
Statistics Canada also reported that retail sales for October were relatively unchanged, holding at $42.8-billion.
U.S. indexes were mainly lower after buying sentiment got a big lift this week after the U.S. Federal Reserve said that it will be "patient" in deciding when to hike rates.
The Dow Jones industrials slipped 14.43 points to 17,763.72 after the blue chip index soared 421 points on Thursday. The Nasdaq declined 7.46 points to 4,740.94 and the S&P 500 index edged up 1.17 points to 2,062.4.
Stock markets in North America enjoyed a series of big gains in the last full week of trading for 2014. Investors got a big dose of reassurance from the Fed's mid-week announcement on interest rates. While a hike in short-term rates from near zero is widely expected around the middle of 2015, there have been concerns the Fed would move even earlier.
The Fed said economic data will determine when it hikes and Fed Chair Janet Yellen said Wednesday that she foresaw no rate hike in the first quarter of 2015.
On the Toronto market, the energy sector by far has been the biggest beneficiary of a three-day run of bargain-hunting that has sent the component up about 12 per cent for this week. The sector is still down 20 per cent year to date, having been positive the same amount mid-summer before oil prices started to collapse amid demand worries but especially because of a huge supply imbalance.
Crude prices have plunged almost 50 per cent since mid-year highs but seemed to find support around the $54 (U.S.) a barrel level this week. On Friday, the January contract in New York climbed $1.84 to $55.95 a barrel and the energy sector gained 0.25 per cent.
The base metals sector was ahead 0.6 per cent while March copper gained three cents to $2.89 a pound.
February gold was up $2 to $1,196.80 an ounce and the gold sector rose 0.25 per cent.