Source: The Canadian Press

Malcolm Morrison

The Toronto stock market closed lower Monday as economic worries pushed commodity prices lower despite news from the G20 Summit that economically advanced countries plan to reduce their deficits.

The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 100.85 points to 11,607 after the world’s most powerful leaders emerged from the G20 Summit in Toronto with an agreement to cut deficits in half by 2013 and stabilize their debt loads by 2016.

“This government debt overhang — all we did was take the massive overhang of private sector debt and transferred it to the public sector,” observed said Paul Taylor, chief investment officer at BMO Harris Private Banking.

“And now we need the public sector to deal with that in the intermediate to longer term to provide assurance to folks that we will have sufficient economic firepower to draw on should we experience another situation that is as dire as we saw 12, 18 months ago.”

The TSX Venture Exchange was down 7.41 points to 1,451.31.

The Canadian dollar ticked 0.01 of a cent higher to 96.54 cents US.

The TSX was depressed by the commodities sectors as the August crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange declined 61 cents to US$78.25 a barrel. Oil had rallied strongly Friday on fears that tropical storm Alex might disrupt oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. But by Monday morning, those worries had eased.

Also, the storm will likely strike well away from the area where BP is trying to stop a massive oil leak, said the U.S. National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

The energy sector was down 1.55%, with Canadian Natural Resources (TSX:CNQ) down 46 cents at C$36.25 and Imperial Oil (TSX:IMO) off 59 cents at C$39.93.

A stronger U.S. dollar also put downward pressure on commodity prices and the base metals sector shed 2.63% as the July copper contract on the Nymex moved down two cents to US$3.07 a pound. Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B) fell $1.34 to C$33.68 while Lundin Mining (TSX:LUN) dropped 16 cents to $3.31.

The gold sector weakened as the August bullion contract in New York reversed direction to lose $17.60 to US$1,238.60 an ounce. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) lost 36 cents to C$46.74 and Kinross Gold (TSX:K) faded 37 cents to C$18.64.

Losses in the financial sector also increased with Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) down 54 cents at $59.55 and Sun Life Financial (TSX:SLF) off 48 cents at $29.

The lower session came on top of a negative week that saw the TSX fall 2.1% and the Dow industrials gave back 2.9% as worries mounted about the strength of the economic rebound.

Investors are hoping for reassurance on the U.S. recovery this coming week from the Institute for Supply Management’s latest reading on the manufacturing sector due Thursday. And on Friday, the U.s. Labour Department releases the June non-farm payrolls report.

Economists are looking for a drop of 200,000 employees, reflecting the termination of thousands of temporary workers taken on for the U.S. census. Still, economists expect the private sector created about 50,000 jobs in June.

“We’ll reach the point by mid-2010 where at least half the stimulus spend is behind us … so the hope is the flush balance sheets in the corporate sector start to be spent and while the fiscal stimulus wanes, the private sector steps in and this morphs from fiscal stimulus-led to organic,” added Taylor.

“And the key to all that is jobs.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Conference Board releases its latest reading on American consumer confidence Tuesday.

New York markets were little changed amid data that showed U.S. consumer spending rose slightly in May, a sign that Americans are cautious about the economic recovery.

The U.S. Commerce Department says that consumer spending rose 0.2% last month, an improvement from April’s reading of no change. Analysts had expected spending to edge up only 0.1%, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

But much of the higher spending likely reflects greater use of electricity and other utilities. Spending on goods actually declined.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 5.29 points to 10,138.52. The Nasdaq composite index was down 2.83 points to 2,220.65 while the S&P 500 index was 2.19 points lower to 1,074.57.

Tobacco stocks provided some lift to New York markets after the U.S. Supreme Court said it wouldn’t take up a case between the government and tobacco companies. The decision prevents the government from getting billions of dollars from makers of cigarettes for anti-smoking campaigns. Reynolds American Inc. rose $2.08 or 4% to US$53.45.

In other corporate news, BP denied that its embattled chief executive, Tony Hayward, was resigning. Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency had quoted a senior Russian cabinet official as saying Hayward was expected to resign. In New York, BP shares rose three cents to US$27.05.

TransAlta Corporation (TSX:TA) stepped back 13 cents to $20.32 after it announced that pipeline operator Enbridge Inc. plans to help develop Canada’s first fully integrated carbon capture and storage project at the Alberta power producer’s coal-fired plant near Edmonton. It says that the development involves retro-fitting Keephills 3, a coal-fired plant west of Edmonton that’s jointly owned by the Calgary company and its partner Capital Power Corp. Enbridge shares rose 44 cents to $49.50.

Cliffs Natural Resources has raised its offer for Spider Resources Inc. (TSXV:SPQ) to 19 cents, putting pressure on KWG Resources Inc. (TSXV:KWG), which matched a previous bid. KWG has until midnight July 6 to match the Ohio-based mining company’s offer. KWG shares were unchanged at 12 cents while Spider shares surged three cents to 19 cents on heavy volume of 21.5 million shares.

Exploration company Seafield Resources Ltd. (TSXV:SFF) saw its shares soar three cents or 15.79% to 22 cents after announcing that new exploratory drilling has begun on its Miraflores project in Colombia.