RIM needs new blood: Why spate of exits is a good thingDANISH SIDDIQUI/Reuters
The Toronto stock market started Tuesday relatively flat as oil prices gained some traction and housing data from the United States gave traders a small dose of optimism.
The S&P/TSX gave back 13.95 points at 11,316.44, while the TSX Venture Exchange inched up 0.63 of a point to 1,176.28.
Stock in Research In Motion Ltd. is again down sharply, a day after plummeting to its lowest level in almost a decade. On the Toronto Stock Exchange, RIM shares fell 25 cents, or 2.67 per cent, to $9.11 in initial trading.
U.S. stocks advanced modestly on Tuesday, with investors exercising caution as a Spanish bill auction met with falling demand ahead of a summit by EU leaders later in the week.
"There is not a reason in the world to buy the market this morning, certainly nothing in the overnight that would suggest there is any kind of a good foundational reason to buy the market – even an oversold condition," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital in Jersey City, New Jersey.
A notable exception was JPMorgan Chase & Co which rose 1.6 per cent to $35.90 as one of the top boosts to both the Dow and S&P after Goldman Sachs added the bank to its America's conviction buy list, citing its capital and earnings power.
In commodities, the August crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was up 41 cents at US$79.62 a barrel, helping to send the energy sector up 0.03 per cent.
Gold stocks were the lead gainer, down 1.3 per cent, as August gold was down $8.90 at US$1,579.50 an ounce, while July copper rose nearly half a cent to US$3.32 a pound.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 21.72 points, or 0.17 percent, to 12,524.38. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 4.68 points, or 0.36 percent, to 1,318.40. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 15.24 points, or 0.54 percent, to 2,851.40.
The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas showed single-family home prices gained 0.7 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis in April, the third climb in a row, topping economists' expectations of 0.4 per cent.
The Canadian dollar was ahead 0.23 of a cent at 97.39 cents U.S.
With files from Reuters