TORONTO - The Toronto stock market headed lower Thursday even as investors took in some economic reports that gave them cause to feel somewhat better about prospects for the global economy.
The S&P/TSX composite index was 52 points lower to 11,345.3 with gold stocks the biggest decliner as gold prices backed off.
The TSX Venture Exchange was down 2.59 points to 1,361.92 while the Canadian dollar moved up 0.58 cent to 96.02 cents US.
The International Monetary Fund raised its 2010 world growth forecast to 4.6 per cent from 4.2 per cent in April and boosted estimates for the United States, China and Canada.
And this was good news “particularly because a lot of the worries over the last two months had been a big slowdown in China, a big slowdown in Europe, the wheels starting to fall off the U.S.,” observed Colin Cieszynski, market analyst at CMC Markets Canada.
“What we’re into is kind of a slow growth phase where the wheels aren’t falling off but we’re not knocking the doors down either.”
The IMF also warned that the European debt crisis could pose a risk to global growth but said a return to recession was unlikely.
The weak performance on the TSX follows two strong triple-digit advances. The Toronto market ran up almost 200 points on Wednesday after a strong profit forecast by State Street bank in the U.S. encouraged buyers to pick up stocks that have been beaten down recently because of worries the global recovery is losing traction.
“We’re seeing very good strength because when you look back to the last couple of months, every time you had a big rally like yesterday’s, you can see the markets just turn around and see this selling just start the next day,” said Cieszynski.
“So it’s shown a real improvement in confidence and sentiment today.”
Meanwhile, in Europe, the committee subjecting some of the region’s biggest banks to stress tests said it has
