Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market eked out a small gain Monday as financial stocks advanced ahead of another batch of earnings from the big banks but sentiment was weak following further signs of slowing U.S. growth.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 15.83 points to 11,895.55 and the TSX Venture Exchange gained 8.32 points to 1,497.17.

The financial sector was up 0.45% ahead of earnings this week from TD Bank (TSX:TD) and Scotiabank (TSX:BNS).

The sector made a slight gain last week following a mixed bag of quarterly earnings reports from four of the big banks. CIBC (TSX:CM) and National Bank (TSX:NA) handed in earnings that beat analyst forecasts while Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) and Royal Bank (TSX:RY) missed estimates with performance hobbled by weak capital markets.

Scotiabank is scheduled to report on Tuesday and TD Bank is due Thursday.

Investors took solace from the fact that the domestic business is solid with falling provisions for bad loans. Nonetheless, cautious traders pushed Scotiabank shares down 13 cents to $51.90 while TD dipped 17 cents to $71.61. Elsewhere in the group, Bank of Montreal gained 73 cents to $58.33 and Royal Bank advanced 85 cents to $51.25.

But TSX gains were held in check by a report Monday which showed U.S. personal income rose less than expected in July, adding to the string of data that points toward a slowdown in growth in the second half of the year.

The U.S. Commerce Department said personal income rose 0.2% last month, falling below economists’ forecast for 0.3% growth, according to Thomson Reuters.

“The personal income report did little to ease the nervousness about the trajectory of the economy,” said Alan Gayle, senior investment strategist at RidgeWorth Investments. The report did show spending was up in July, but without consistent growth in income, any increase in spending is likely temporary, Gayle said.

The TSX base metals sector advanced almost 1% as the September copper contract in New York was up five cents at US$3.43 a pound. Quadra FNX Mining (TSX:QUX) climbed 21 cents to C$11.32.

Shares in First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (TSX:FM) gained $2.49 to $61.17 after it said Friday that it will suspend operations at its Frontier mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo after the government said it has taken over the mine’s titles. The Vancouver-based copper and gold miner is considering international arbitration against the DRC government.

The energy sector was up 0.39% Monday even as oil prices backed off following three strong sessions. The October crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange declined 47 cents to US$74.70. Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) lifted 22 cents to C$32.92.

Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM) was up a slight two cents to $48.37 even as the BlackBerry maker won a reprieve from the Indian government.

India said Monday it won’t ban BlackBerry services for at least 60 days, during which authorities will examine RIM’s proposals to give security agencies greater access to corporate email and instant messaging.

RIM stock has tumbled about 18% this month and analysts suggest the stock will have a hard time recovering even if the company can satisfy demands from countries such as India.

“We’ve have become very concerned — less about the current headlines related to India and other places — but more about the fact that it looks like they aren’t gaining the market share we expected in the consumer market,” said Kate Warne, Canadian markets specialist at Edward Jones in St. Louis, noting that her company has a hold rating on the stock.

“Our downgrade was really based more on our concern about their traction in the marketplace and how much they were going to have to lower prices to get whatever market share they do get. So we expect margins to get hit as well.”

The tech sector was the biggest decliner, down 1.1% with Open Text Corp. (TSX:OTC) off $1.05 at $46.25.

Gold stocks failed to find advance even as the December bullion contract on the Nymex edged up $1.30 to US$1,239.20 an ounce. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) faded 24 cents to C$46.41.

The Canadian dollar fell 0.72 of a cent to 94.3 cents US after Statistics Canada said the country’s current account was $11 billion in the red in the second quarter. The agency said the deficit grew by $2.6 billion in the quarter, as export growth slowed and imports grew.

It was the seventh consecutive quarter of deficit in the current account, which covers transactions in goods, services, investment income and current transfers.

Attention will also be focused this week on the Institute for Supply Management’s August reading on the American manufacturing sector as well as on U.S. employment data for the month.

New York markets registered declines in the wake of the incomes report as the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 140.92 points at 10,009.73.

The Nasdaq composite index lost 33.66 points to 2,119.97 while the S&P 500 index shed 15.67 points to 1,048.92.

In other corporate news, the Australian media has quoted Agrium Inc. CEO Michael Wilson as saying his company would be interested in buying some assets of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan should BHP Billiton Ltd. seek to spin them off if the Australian miner is successful in its takeover bid. BHP Billiton has made a hostile US$38.6-billion bid for PotashCorp (TSX:POT). Potash shares rose 86 cents to $155.85 while Agrium (TSX:AGU) shares were up 60 cents at $73.66.

George Weston Ltd. (TSX:WN) is sinking its teeth into frozen cupcake, doughnut and cookie maker Keystone Bakery, making a move to acquire the company for US$185 million. Toronto-based Weston says the transaction will be made through its subsidiary, Maplehurst Bakeries. Its shares gained 79 cents to $83.57.