Toronto stock market set for minor advance ahead of busy earnings week

TORONTO – The Toronto stock market was set for a slightly higher open Monday as traders look to a heavy slate of earnings news in Canada and the U.S. coming out during the week.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.01 of a cent to 90.79 cents US.

U.S. futures were positive with the Dow Jones industrial futures up 27 points to 16,370, the Nasdaq futures were ahead 10.2 points to 3,533.5 while the S&P 500 futures rose 3.25 points to 1,861.25.

On Monday, traders will look to results coming in after the close from Rogers Communications(TSX:RCI.B). Rogers acquired additional wireless spectrum during the January auction for $3.3 billion, which will be needed to allow consumers to stream NHL games on their mobile devices. Rogers scored a $5.2-billion multi-year deal for the national rights to all NHL games last fall.

Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B) also reports this week and its results will be impacted by falling commodity prices. Copper prices have tumbled 11 per cent this year and coal prices have fared even worse, falling from US$300 a tonne in 2011 to about $120 a tonne.

Meanwhile, shareholders in Canadian Pacific (TSX:CP) will be looking to see if the railway’s results justify the 36 per cent run-up in the stock price over the last 52 weeks. Traders will look to see how severe winter weather affected the railway in the quarter and how increased petroleum shipments have lifted the bottom line.

In the U.S., on Monday toymaker Hasbro reported earnings ex-items of 14 cents per share, four cents ahead of estimates. Revenue edged up two per cent to $679.5 million from $663.7 million, but missed Wall Street’s estimate of $690.1 million.

The tech sector in particular will be in focus as traders take in earnings during the week from tech heavyweights including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Netflix. The results are being released following a sharp correction in the tech sector that has seen the Nasdaq index drop about five per cent this month.

Elsewhere on the corporate front, the U.S. government said Friday that it needs more time to prepare its recommendation to president Barack Obama on TransCanada’s (TSX:TRP) Keystone XL pipeline. The southern leg of the Alberta-to-Texas pipeline is already completed, but the northern stretch that crosses the Canada-U.S. border requires a presidential permit.

Junior wireless company Mobilicity says it has agreed to be purchased by Telus Corp. (TSX:T) for $350 million. However, the sale is subject to regulatory approval. Telus has twice tried to buy struggling Mobilicity, but both times the deal was rejected by Industry Canada. This time, however, Mobilicity says it believes the deal will satisfy the federal agency’s criteria and will not affect competition in the Canadian wireless sector.

On the commodity markets, May crude in New York slipped 19 cents to US$104.11 a barrel.

May copper was unchanged at US$3.04 a pound while June bullion fell $9.90 to US$1,284 an ounce.

The primary economic news for the week comes out Wednesday when Statistics Canada is expected to report that retail sales in February rose 0.4 per cent from January. Economists expect a good chunk of the gain will be driven by higher gasoline prices.

The big number for the U.S. is March durable goods data coming out on Thursday. Economists looked for goods orders to have risen by 1.9 per cent following a 2.2 per cent gains in February.