Source: The Canadian Press

Economic uncertainty left the Toronto stock market little changed Thursday as early advances by resource stocks lost momentum despite some encouraging news from the U.S. labour front while financial stock losses deepened amid an earnings miss from Canada’s biggest bank.

The S&P/TSX composite index rose 5.06 points to 11,653.18 as shares of the Royal Bank of Canada, the Toronto market’s most heavily weighted company, fell about 3.5%.

The TSX Venture Exchange edged up 6.14 points to 1,468.92.

The financial sector was negative as quarterly earnings reports from major Canadian banks picked up the pace Thursday with two of the big six institutions reporting.

Shares in Royal Bank (TSX:RY) moved down $1.74 to $48.95 as the bank reported its third-quarter net profits fell 18% to $1.28 billion. Results were pulled down by a weaker capital markets business during a period when performance on equity markets stalled because of worries about the pace of the economic recovery.

“It’s not much of a surprise,” said Jennifer Dowty, portfolio manager at MFC Global Investment Management. “Look at the way equity markets have been. They’ve been very volatile, volumes have been very low, we’re not seeing many new (share) issues come in.”

“One concern that was plaguing this sector were the credit losses – all the provisions that the financial institutions had to take,” Dowty added. “And that seems to have waned but now we have, of course, the issue with the trading business being very weak.”

Cash earnings per share at the Royal Bank dropped to 87 cents from $1.05. Analyst estimates had forecast a profit of $1.02 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

National Bank (TSX:NA), Canada’s sixth-biggest bank, said its net profits fell to $271 million from $303 million for the same period last year. Like the other big banks, performance was held back by a weak showing in its capital markets operations.

The Montreal-based bank said it earned $1.57 a share excluding extraordinary items for the third quarter ended July 31, which was five cents better than analysts expected and its shares ran ahead $2.35 to $58.

It has been a mixed bag for banks’ quarterly earnings reports this week. Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) reported profits on Tuesday that were up by 20% during the quarter but missed estimates.

And on Wednesday, CIBC (TSX:CM) reported earnings of $640 million, which beat expectations and were up 47% from a year ago.

The Canadian dollar moved up 0.36 of a cent to 94.63 cents US.

There was also relief at data that showed that new claims for unemployment benefits in the U.S. dropped last week after rising in the past three weeks. The U.S. Labour Department said new claims for jobless aid dropped by 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 473,000. Wall Street economists had expected a smaller drop.

“On the positive side, claims came down slightly compared to the shock last week,” said Oliver Pursche, executive vice-president at Gary Goldberg Financial Services in New York.

“That said, the number still remains stubbornly high.”

Elsewhere on the TSX, resource stocks were mainly weak even as prices for oil and metals advanced.

The October crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 84 cents to US$73.36 a barrel but the energy sector was flat. Cenovus Energy (TSX:CVE) declined 26 cents to $26.75.

The base metals sector was also little changed as the September copper contract on the Nymex rose nine cents to US$3.30 a pound. Western Coal (TSX:WTN) was down eight cents to $3.72 while Equinox Minerals (TSX:EQN) climbed 11 cents to $4.44.

Gold stocks moved higher even as December gold in New York dipped $3.60 to US$1,237.70 an ounce. Kinross Gold Corp. (TSX:K) gained 36 cents to $16.98.

New York markets lost early momentum despite the jobless claims data amid fresh concerns about Spain’s fiscal health.

El Economista reported that a Spanish court has voided 5.1 billion euros (US$6.48 billion) in value-added tax collected in past years, which raised concerns that the ruling may worsen the European debt crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average declined 74.25 points to 9,985.81 despite data showing falling jobless insurance claims. The Nasdaq composite index was down 22.85 points to 2,118.69 while the S&P 500 index was off 8.11 points at 1,047.22.

Elsewhere on the corporate front, Dell Inc. said Thursday that data storage maker 3Par has accepted its raised buyout bid of US$1.52 billion, after the computer maker topped an offer from rival Hewlett-Packard. The offer is US$24.30 a share in cash, up from Dell’s previous offer of $1.13 billion. Dell shares closed down three cents at US$11.75.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is offering to lead an industry group to work with the Indian government regarding New Delhi’s demand for access to information that passes between the smartphones. RIM observes that “the use of strong encryption in wireless technology is not unique to the BlackBerry platform.”

RIM (TSX:RIM) is trying to reach a solution with India before an Aug. 31 deadline, which would see BlackBerry email and text messaging services banned in that country. It shares fell $1.25 to $49.45.

Shares in Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) dipped 35 cents to $52.35 as the company announced that it has entered into an agreement with Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) to construct a new, 95-kilometre crude oil pipeline. The “Wood Buffalo” pipeline will connect the Enbridge Athabasca Terminal, which is adjacent to Suncor’s oilsands plant, to the Cheecham Terminal, the origin point of Enbridge’s Waupisoo pipeline, which delivers crude oil from several oilsands projects to the Edmonton mainline hub. Suncor shares gained 17 cents to $32.15.

Shares in Fortis Inc. (TSX:FTS) were 11 cents lower at $29.05 as Canada’s largest private-sector power company announced plans to build a $900-million hydroelectric plant in southern British Columbia with two provincial agencies as partners.