Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos walks on stage for the launch of the new Amazon Fire Phone, Wednesday, June 18, 2014, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)The Associated Press
The Toronto stock market was up slightly at the end of a positive week amid a rebound for U.S. durable goods orders.
The S&P/TSX composite index climbed 44.47 points to 15,438.92.
The Canadian dollar was down 0.11 of a cent to 92.96 cents (U.S.).
U.S. indexes were sharply lower as traders also digested another earnings disappointment from online retailer Amazon.
Orders for durable goods, such as machinery, computers and related products and commercial aircraft, increased by 0.7 per cent during June. Orders had dropped one per cent in May.
The Dow Jones industrials dropped 93.79 points 16,990.01, the Nasdaq fell 22.87 points to 4,449.24 and the S&P 500 index was down 6.82 points to 1,981.16.
Amazon shares plunged 10 per cent in pre-market trading after posting a loss of $126-million (U.S.), or 27 cents per share, compared with $7-million, or two cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 13 cents per share.
The company said revenue rose 23 per cent to $19.34-billion from $15.7-billion in the same quarter a year earlier. Analysts expected $19.33-billion, according to Zacks.
Shares in document management company Xerox gained 19 cents to $13.03 after it reported profit that declined by 1.9 per cent in its second quarter to $266-million, or 22 cents per share. Ex-items, earnings were 27 cents a share, a penny higher than estimates and beat analysts' expectations. Revenue decreased 1.8 per cent to $5.29-billion.
The Toronto stock market headed for a positive week amid a string of record-high closes after investors took in a series of positive earnings reports from Canadian National Railway, Teck Resources and Loblaw Co. Ltd.
The metals and mining sector was down 0.9 per cent, giving back all of the gain racked up Thursday in the wake of a strong report on Chinese manufacturing. However, that data competed with a warning from the International Monetary Fund that economies around the world are taking longer than expected to recover. Its latest economic outlook predicts global growth will be about three-tenths of a point lower at 3.4 per cent this year than it thought in April. September copper was unchanged at $3.27 (U.S.) a pound.
The energy sector was down 0.43 per cent, while September crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 38 cents to $101.69 a barrel.
August gold gained $4.80 to $1,295.60 an ounce and the gold sector gained 0.45 per cent.
Geopolitical concerns continued to cast a shadow.
On Friday, European Union ambassadors reached a preliminary deal on stepped-up sanctions against Russia, targeting its access to European capital markets and trade in the defence sector, dual-use goods and sensitive technologies. The ambassadors also ordered EU-wide asset freezes and travel bans for an undisclosed number of Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainians who are accused of undermining Ukraine's sovereignty.
In other corporate news, Candu Energy Inc., an SNC-Lavalin company, has signed a co-operation agreement with China Nuclear Power Engineering Company Ltd. for the construction of two nuclear reactors at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant in Romania. It is hoped the deal could lead to a series of global infrastructure projects between SNC and the Chinese nuclear industry. SNC rose 81 cents to $57.32 (Canadian).