C2

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

TORONTO - The Toronto stock market closed slightly lower yesterday, extending last week's steep losses loss despite good U.S. economic news and a solid profit report from Ford Motor Co.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 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 as economic growth and consumer sentiment figures raised fresh doubts about whether the economic revival justifies the sharp run-up in stocks seen since early March.

"I think we're back in a market that's going to pay extraordinarily high attention to every piece of data and once again there is going to be a skittish response, up and down a lot -- but moving higher, it's just going to be sort of a very bumpy ride higher," said Kate Warne, Canadian market specialist at Edward Jones in St. Louis.

RIM shares fell $3.67 or 5.75 per cent to $60.15 after Citigroup analyst Jim Suvam reduced his rating on the stock to "sell" from "buy."

He cited the impact of competing smart phones, especially Motorola Inc. phones using Google Inc.'s Android operating system.

Not all analysts shared Citigroup's point of view.

"We have a buy rating on it," said Warne. "And we continue to think there's room in the very rapidly growing smartphone market for both RIM and Apple and other competitors."

In New York, shares in Ford shot up 58 cents or 8.3 per cent to US$7.58 after the automaker reported that gains in market share, cost cutting and the U.S. government's Cash for Clunkers program led to a US$997-million profit in the third quarter.

Ford says it now expects to be "solidly profitable" in 2011. Previously the automaker has said it would be break-even or better.