VANCOUVER — Canadian stock markets closed the trading session nearly even on Monday following a tough week in which the main equity benchmark dropped nearly three per cent. The S&P/TSX Composite index ended higher by 11.08 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 11,354.51, while the S&P/TSX Venture composite slipped 2.82, or 0.2 per cent, to 1,546.85. Energy, utilities, and financial groups advanced, while gold, base metal, and materials stocks finished lower. Declining issues on the TSX outpaced gainers 820 to 756. The March crude contract settled at $75.26 US, recovering 72 cents after three consecutive losing sessions and then a morning dip that dropped oil as low as $74.06 US a barrel. Crude has fallen nearly $10 US a barrel since hitting a 15-month high of $83.95 US Jan. 11. Gold climbed $6, or 0.6 per cent, to $1,095.20 US an ounce. The Canadian dollar was unchanged at 94.51 cents US. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 23.88 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 10,196.86, the S&P 500 added 5.02, or 0.5 per cent, to 1,096.78, and the Nasdaq composite finished the session up 5.51, or 0.3 per cent, to 2,210.80. Existing home sales in the U.S. fell 17 per cent in December from the previous month — the biggest monthly drop in 42 years — as first-time homebuyers rushed to beat a deadline to qualify for an $8,000 US tax credit. But the median price of a U.S. home was up 1.5 per cent from the same period a year earlier, the first year-over-year increase since August 2007, and the number of existing homes on the market fell to 3.29 million, the lowest in nearly four years. Solar energy stocks recovered slightly Monday, after Germany slashed solar subsidies 15 per cent, over and above a scheduled reduction. Canadian Solar gained 69 cents, or 3.2 per cent, to $22.35 US after tumbling $11.09, or 31 per cent, since Jan. 11. First Solar, the biggest U.S. solar producer, slipped 67 cents to $111.72 US, extending losses of $26.52, or 19 per cent, in the same period. Shares of Goldman Sachs added 86 cents, or 0.5 per cent, to $154.98 US, after dropping $11 last week. Calling Wall Street bonuses “obscene,” U.S. President Barack Obama proposed a crackdown on business practices at banks, deemed too big to fail, that received government bailout money. Goldman had already set aside $16.2 billion US in bonus provisions in the first nine months of 2009. With the share price sliding, Goldman executives stand to collect more shares of stock when bonuses are finally awarded, potentially creating a windfall when they are able to sell in five years time. In late trading, shares of Apple traded over $205 US after closing up $5.32 at $203.07 US. Sales of the iPhone fell slightly short of Street forecasts at 8.7 million units, but the company reported record sales of Mac computers and higher profit margins, earning $3.38 billion US, or $3.67 a share, on revenue of $15.68 billion US, up 32 per cent from a year earlier. With a new product announcement from Apple slated for Wednesday, shares of Canadian contract manufacturer SMTC shot up 60 cents, or 43 per cent, to $2.00. With no news and no photos from Apple ahead of the product launch, some traders connected the dots to SMTC, an Apple supplier. Junior explorer First Gold closed at 63 cents after trading as high as $1.03 Monday on volume of 13.7 million shares. The company reported a discovery of rare earth metals on its property near James Bay in northeastern Quebec, including lithium, beryllium, tantalum, and niobium. A 4.4-metre section contained 2,922 grams per tonne of rubidium, used in night-vision sensors and fibre-optic cable. The drill core is being retested for rubidium because the readings were off the scale of the original lab equipment.

Source