The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market saw its third consecutive day of triple-digit gains Wednesday in a week that has already seen the index climb 3.6%.

The S&P/TSX composite index added 101.91 points to 11,349.88. Most sectors turned positive towards the end of the day on continuing strength in metals prices and investor confidence that the economic rebound has staying power.

The price of gold continued its upward climb to close at another record high, with the December bullion contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gaining US$4.70 to US$1,044.40 an ounce. The Toronto gold sector gained 1.1%.

Meanwhile, the November crude oil contract fell US$1.31 to US$69.57 a barrel as investors focused on U.S. government data that showed Americans still have little appetite for more petroleum. The Toronto energy sector was up 0.1%.

The information technology sector led the market, adding 2.4%, while the base metals sector gained 1.8% and the financial sector was up 1.2%.

The loonie, which gained a full two cents against the U.S. dollar in the first two days of trading this week, slipped 0.25¢ to US94.13¢.

The TSX Venture Exchange gained 8.42 points to 1,289.82.

With few economic reports due out the rest of the week, quarterly earnings will take centre stage when aluminum company Alcoa Inc. (NYSE:AA) reports results after the market closes Wednesday, officially kicking off the third-quarter earnings season.

Earnings will provide insight into just how strong any economic rebound has been so far. During the second quarter, companies largely beat modest earnings expectations by cutting costs and streamlining operations. That helped fuel the market’s rally throughout the summer.

Now investors will be looking for actual growth in revenue and sales as the driver of earnings. That would indicate companies are starting to get their footing again and consumers are back to buying goods and services.

Paul Thornton of Investor Boot Camp Online said the economic rebound has come far enough that some companies should see a substantial improvement in profits this earnings season.

“I do think there is probably a fair bit of anticipation and maybe anxiety about earnings season in this quarter because we are getting to a pivotal point here with earnings where we’re going to really see which sectors and companies are continuing to suffer from the recession and which ones are rebounding and are the true high-growth companies,” Thornton said.

However, he said the rally will probably continue even if earnings are disappointing, as government stimulus spending and record low interest rates drive the recovery.

“The belief is the rebound is well underway and it’s stronger than people anticipated, and money will keep going into the stock market regardless of what the earnings numbers are unless there is some absolutely spectacular divergence,” he said.

In New York, markets were flat as investors awaited guidance from earnings season. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 5.67 points to 9,725.58. The Nasdaq composite index added 6.76 points to 2,110.33 while the S&P 500 edged up 2.85 points to 1,057.57.

In Canadian corporate news, Ciena Corp. (Nasdaq:CIEN) is offering cash and stock worth US$521 million to acquire some of Nortel Network Corp.’s most prized remaining business units.

The deal covers the Nortel Optical Networking and Carrier Ethernet businesses, which include the rights to technology that enhances the speed and capacity of current fibre optic networks by as much as 10 times.

In the mining sector, Gammon Gold Inc. (TSX:GAM) said it’s planning a US$100 million stock offering to fund debt repayment, exploration and its Guadalupe y Calvo project. The new shares will be priced at US$8.90 Gammon’s publicly traded shares fell 48¢ or 4.9% to C$9.42.

And Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) shares plunged 34¢ or 18.5% to $1.50 after the company said it will raise $260 million in an equity offering that will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Under the bought deal led by Genuity Capital Markets and TD Securities Inc., Air Canada will issue 160.5 million units at a price of $1.62 per unit.