TSX Dips Amid Cautious Trade - Canadian Commentary

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks were extending losses for a second session Friday morning amid flat commodities, with traders awaiting cues from the comments later today by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for indications about the possible pace of further reductions in monetary stimulus.

Elsewhere, Asian stocks fell sharply overnight as investors continued to take profits despite some encouraging data out of Europe and the US. The European markets are trading higher as retailers benefited from an upbeat trading update from Next

The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 32.03 points or 0.24 percent to 13,562.16, after losing about a quarter percent in the previous session.

The price of crude oil was little changed Friday morning as traders await cues from the official inventories data, due out later during the session. Today during trading hours, the EIA will release its US crude oil inventories report for the weekended December 27. Analysts expect US crude oil inventories to dip 2.2 million barrels last week. Crude for February edged down $0.28 to $95.16 a barrel.

In the oil patch, Paramount Resources (POU.TO) and Trilogy Energy (TET.TO) were down around 1 percent each. Suncor Energy (SU.TO) was down 0.50 percent, while Niko Resources (NKO.TO) adding about 1 percent.

Among financial stocks, Scotiabank (BNS.TO), CIBC (CM.TO) and National Bank (NA.TO) dipped nearly 1 percent each.

Meanwhile, gold stocks were trading firm amid steady bullion prices. The price of gold was moving higher Friday morning on bargain hunting after the yellow metal suffered its worst annual performance in over twelve years in 2013. Last year, gold settled near a three-year low of $1,200, after hitting a peak of near $1,700 in mid- January 2013, as prospects for global economic recovery prompted investors to switch to riskier assets. Gold for February added $7.90 to $1233.10 an ounce.

Among gold plays, Detour Gold (DGC.TO) gained over 5 percent. Seabridge Gold (SEA.TO) added 1 percent, while Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM.TO) slipping nearly 1 percent.

Transportation company Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO) edged up 0.50 percent after it said that it sold the west end of its Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern line to Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (GWR) for continued rail operations. The purchase price is about $210 million.

Drug development company Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (AEZ.TO) gathered about 1 percent after announcing the appointment of Richard Sachse as Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer. Before joining Aeterna, Dr. Sachse was Vice President, Head of Global Translational Medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim.

In economic news, euro zone broadest measure of money supply grew at a slightly faster pace in November, data from the European Central Bank showed. The annual growth rate of M3 was 1.5 percent in November compared with 1.4 percent in October. The annual growth rate of M1 stood at 6.5 percent in November.

Elsewhere, U.K. mortgage approvals increased for the ninth consecutive month in November, the Bank of England said. The number of loans approved for house purchases was 70,758 in November, up from 68,029 in October. Approvals also exceeded the 69,700 level forecast by economists.

Meanwhile, China's official non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 54.6 in December from 56.0 in November due to a slowdown in the construction and service sectors, a report from the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing showed, increasing risk aversion.