Canada’s benchmark stock index was slipping between gains and losses at midday on Friday as gold prices dropped for a second day, while U.S. markets steamed ahead despite mixed economic news from south of the border, as European financial stocks stabilized after France, Spain, Italy and Belgium imposed a ban on short-selling.
U.S. retail sales, reported Friday, met expectations and eased some of the worries about the slowing economy there, though markets dropped briefly after the University of Michigan consumer confidence report showed confidence levels at their lowest since 1980.
“This is a sour take on how consumers feel about market volatility, no jobs, and shaky political leadership at best and it may point to sharp spending downsides,” Scotia Capital economists Derek Holt and Karen Cordes Woods wrote in a note following the report’s release at mid-morning.
In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index was up by about 14 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 12,554 at midday.
The Dow Jones industrial average was ahead by about 193 points, or 1.73 per cent, to 11,335.85, and the Nasdaq composite was up 29 points, or 1.15 per cent, to 2,521.
The price of crude oil was up 59 cents US to $86.31 US a barrel in electronic trading in New York at midday, and gold was falling for a second day, down $18.50 US to $1,733.00 US an ounce.
The Canadian dollar had erased some earlier losses and was showing a gain of seven basis points to $1.0125 US in late morning trading.
Tokyo’s Nikkei edged downward by 0.20 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged upward by 0.13 per cent, but European markets posted strong gains on Friday. The FTSE in London rose 3.04 per cent, the CAC in Paris gained 4.02 per cent and Frankfurt’s DAX advanced 3.45 per cent.
