Energy and mining stocks took the Toronto stock market higher Friday, at the end of a week where oil started piling on solid advances after declining for much of the month.
But New York markets closed mixed as techs got a late-day boost during a session where solid economic data raised concerns about where interest rates are heading.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index gained 51.98 points to 12,979.26 and up 260.27 points for the week with only the consumer and utilities sectors posting small losses during Friday's session.
The energy sector led advancers, up 0.9 per cent with the March crude contract in New York up $1.19 to $55.42 (U.S.), gaining 3.8 per cent on the week and its highest level in almost three weeks.
Prices rose Friday on suspicion that the OPEC cartel is not fully complying with a cut of 1.2 million barrels a day that was to have started Nov. 1 and increased heating oil consumption now that cold weather has moved into the U.S. Northeast.
Petro-Canada gained 47 cents to $44.84 and Suncor Energy Corp. rose $1.09 to $87.90, helped along by speculation that BP PLC may be preparing to take a run at the oilsands giant.
The Canadian dollar rose 0.18 cent to 84.75 cents (U.S.) and the TSX Venture Exchange climbed 32.15 points to 2,902.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrials lost 15.54 points to 12,487.02.
On Friday, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rose 3.1 per cent in December, the largest amount in three months, led by a huge jump in demand for commercial aircraft and the biggest increase in orders for cars and trucks in more than two years.
Also, U.S. new home sales were up 4.8 per cent in December, the second strong monthly gain after a 7.4 per cent rise in November.
Until recently hopes had been high that the U.S. Federal Reserve would be moving to lower interest rates early this year. But a strong of strong economic data have raised worries that the next move by the Fed could be a hike in rates to snuff out inflation.
“The biggest driver is concern the Fed might see more reasons to raise rates than to lower,” said Arthur Hogan, chief market analysts at Jefferies & Co. in Boston.
“You can't make the argument that earnings have been bad. If that were the driver, we'd be more in positive territory.”
The Fed makes its next announcement on interest rates on Wednesday.
The Nasdaq composite index was up 1.25 points to 2,435.49 and the S&P 500 index declined 1.7 points to 1,422.2 amid positive corporate earnings news.
Microsoft Corp. reported Thursday that quarterly earnings dropped 28 per cent from a year ago to $2.63-billion or 26 cents a share. The long-delayed launch of the Windows Vista operating system cut into profits. But earnings still came in three cents a share better than expected and its shares were off the highs of the day but still up 15 cents to $30.60.
General Motors Corp. also had investors' attention Friday after announcing it will make a net profit in the fourth quarter but will delay reporting 2006 financial results because of accounting errors and other issues.
The world's largest automaker said it found tax accounting mistakes from before 2002 that will end up increasing its retained earnings for all subsequent years by between $450-million and $600-million. GM shares declined 21 cents to $32.93.
On the TSX, the telecom sector also lent support, climbing 0.5 per cent. Telus Corp. (TSX:T) advanced 41 cents to $56.31 (Canadian).
The materials index was ahead 0.7 per cent.
The metals and mines group moved 0.55 per cent higher and Teck Cominco Ltd. gained 53 cents to $85.69.
On Friday, union officials said negotiations between Xstrata PLC and the Mine Mill & Smelter Workers union at the former Falconbridge nickel operations in Sudbury, Ont., are back at square one.
Nickel hit a record high on the London market this past week. On Friday, prices were up 1.1 per cent to $38,550 (U.S.) a tonne. The metal has more than doubled in the past year. Nickel company FNX Mining inched a penny higher to $18.31.
The gold subgroup ticked 0.1 per cent higher. The February bullion contract on the Nymex faded $3.40 to $644.70 an ounce. Barrick Gold Corp. shed 35 cents to $34.30 (Canadian).
The utilities sector was flat. Shares in TransAlta Corp. climbed 12 cents to $26.32 even as it announced that the closure of its Centralia, Wash., coal mine in November triggered a $238-million hit to the power producer, which reported a 75 per cent drop in net earnings for 2006.
On the TSX, advances beat declines 859 to 707 with 228 unchanged as 351.3 million shares traded worth $5 billion.
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