North American stocks opened little changed on Friday, a day after investors were whipsawed following a worse-than-expected reading on U.S. initial jobless claims.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1 point, to 10,320. The broader S&P 500 fell 1 point, to 1102. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index rose 3 points, to 11,634.
The U.S. Commerce Department said that the economy expanded at a 5.9 per cent annualized clip in the fourth quarter, higher than the 5.7 per cent growth originally estimated in January. However, the upward revision wasn’t exactly greeted with high-fives by economists.
“Overall fourth-quarter growth [was] still very inventory-driven, with a 3.9 percentage point contribution,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, in a note. “Final domestic sales up only 1.6 per cent, after 1.7 cent in the third quarter and 2.3 per cent in the second quarter. Not very encouraging.”
“Today’s reported increase in the second estimate of fourth quarter GDP to 5.9 per cent from the initially reported 5.7 per cent does little to alter the fact that...the bulk of the reported surge in GDP growth in the fourth quarter was a reflection of a sharp reduction in the pace of inventory liquidation following the unprecedented declines through the first three quarters of 2009,” said Nathan Janzen, an economist at Royal Bank of Canada, in a note.
In the United States, Boeing Co. rose 0.9 per cent and General Electric Co. rose 0.8 per cent. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot Inc. fell 0.7 per cent each.
In Canada, energy stocks generally moved higher with the price of crude oil, with Suncor Energy Inc. up 0.3 per cent and Talisman Energy Inc. up 0.2 per cent. Among gold stocks, Goldcorp Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp. rose 0.6 per cent each.
However, financials moved lower after Thursday’s strong earnings-inspired gains, with Royal Bank of Canada down 0.3 per cent, Bank of Nova Scotia down 0.4 per cent and Manulife Financial Corp. down 0.6 per cent.
