The Toronto stock market racked up a slight advance Tuesday, helped along by rising energy stocks as oil prices got a boost from surging U.S. retail sales, while Germany posted stronger-than-expected growth in the second quarter.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 15.28 points to 11,853.61, while the TSX Venture Exchange dipped 0.36 of a point to 1,197.01.
The Canadian dollar was up US0.06ยข to US$1.0082.
U.S. markets lost momentum late in the session even as the Commerce Department reported that retail sales rose 0.8% in July, the largest increase since February. Econo-
the largest increase since February. Economists had expected a gain of 0.3%.
The Dow Jones industrials added 2.71 points to 13,172.14, the Nasdaq composite index dropped 5.54 points to 3,016.98 and the S&P 500 index slipped 0.18 of a point to 1,403.93.
Germany, Europe's biggest economy, posted 0.3% growth in the second quarter, beating expectations of a 0.2% increase, though slowing from the first quarter's 0.5% growth.
But at the same time, another report showed that the chronic debt problems of the 17-country eurozone monetary union are pushing Europe closer to recession.
Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, said that the economies of both the eurozone and the wider 27-country EU shrank by a quarterly rate of 0.2% in the second quarter. In the first quarter, output for both regions was flat. A recession is officially defined as two straight quarters of falling output. Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece are already mired in recession.
"Certainly the macroeconomic news has been less negative," said Paul Vaillancourt, chief investment officer at Canadian Wealth Management in Calgary.
"But clearly we're seeing a global growth slowdown and the data that comes in is mixed. Europe will regrettably fall into recession if it's not already there."
On a brighter note, Vaillancourt thinks Canada and the U.S. are still "pretty good places to invest and even if we're seeing an earnings growth slowdown, balance sheets are in great shape in Canada and the U.S. and you have debt/equity ratios at five-year lows."
The worsening debt crisis has dimmed the prospects for an economic recovery in the rest of the world.
Policy-makers are urging more decisive action, particularly from the European Central Bank, to deal with the debt crisis to restore confidence to the global economy.
Markets have found traction recently after the ECB promised last month to do "whatever it takes" to keep the monetary union intact.
