The Toronto stock market did not experience much volatility on Monday, with the S&P/TSX composite index down 6.6 points to 14,606.72.
Declines were fueled by the recent speech by Stephen Poloz, governor of the Bank of Canada, in which he announced that exports lost because of the financial crisis are not likely to recover.
Royal Bank`s manufacturing index revealed that the sector is growing at a faster pace. Its Canadian manufacturing purchasing managers index was 55.3 in October, versus 53.5 in September. RBC stated that the latest reading highlights the strongest improvement in Canadian business conditions in over two years.
A recent article by Market Business News revealed:
“Canadian manufacturing output reached an 11-month high in October, after falling slightly in September. The RBC Canadian Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ index (PMI) increased to a seasonally adjusted 55.3 in October from September’s 53.5.”
Craig Fehr, Canadian markets specialist at Edward Jones in St. Louis, told the Canadian Press:
“On the economic side, the North American economy and really to a larger extent the U.S. economy, has become the lead horse that’s pulling global growth along,”
Adding:
“I would expect that to continue to be the case for awhile. There are still a lot of issues that have to be worked out in Europe and China in terms of the direction and the pace of economic growth in the near to medium term.”
The gold sector was up by nearly three percent, despite December gold bullion contract dropping by $1.80 to US$1,169.80 an ounce.
Base metals was up by 0.5 percent, with December copper contract climbing by two cents to US$3.07 a pound.
However, the TSX energy sector dropped by 0.1 percent because of weak overseas manufacturing data and December crude oil in New York down to US$79.91 a barrel.
Later this week traders will be keeping an eye on US and Canadian employment data, manufacturing shipments and factory orders, in addition to earnings from key Canadian players such as Air Canada, Tim Horton’s, TransCanada Corp., Enbrige, Sun Life, Great-West Lifeco, Canadian Natural Resources, and Talisman Energy.
The S&P/TSX composite index
