TORONTO - The Toronto stock market closed slightly lower, extending last week's steep losses on worries about the strength of the economic recovery despite good U.S. economic news and a solid profit report from Ford Motor Co.
The S&P/TSX composite index stepped back 32.4 points to 10,878.35, with the market also weighed down by an analyst's downgrade of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. The decline comes on top of a slide of more than four per cent last week
In New York, shares in Ford shot up 8.3 per cent after the automaker reported a US$997-million profit in the third quarter and said it expects to be "solidly profitable" in 2011.
Oil rose US$1.13 to US$78.13 a barrel. The Canadian dollar headed up 0.35 of a cent to 92.78 cents US.
New York's Dow Jones industrial average gained 76.71 points to 9,789.44, the Nasdaq composite index moved 4.09 points higher to 2,049.2 while the S&P 500 index rose 6.68 points to 1,042.87.
Investor sentiment improved after the latest reading on the U.S. manufacturing sector came in much better than expected. Other data showed pending home sales in the United States increased for the eighth straight month in September.
