Oct. 16, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --

Canadian stocks recovered early losses and were basically flat on Friday afternoon. The market was moderately higher for the holiday-shortened week, thanks to a big gain on Wednesday. Within minutes of Friday's closing bell, the S&P TSX Composite index was off but 4.91 points to 11,499.60. Gold and materials stocks added strength, as Yamana Gold gained 3.4% to $12.89, Royal Gold was up 3% to $49.99 and Seabridge advanced 2.4% to $27.31. In corporate news, Volta Resources soared 16.4% to 39 cents after the company said it signed a definitive agreement with Randgold Resources to purchase the Kiaka gold project in Burkina Faso for $4 million in cash and 20 million common shares of Volta. Pengrowth Energy Trust slipped 2% at $10.47 after the company announced that will increase the size of its previously announced offering to $300 million. CVTech Group tacked on 1.3% to $1.60 after the company said its subsidiary Thirau ltée was awarded a $5.2-million contract by Hydro-Québec for work on the vast Romaine hydroelectric complex on Quebec's North Shore. CryptoLogic said that it expects third-quarter revenue of about $9.6 million, and a trading loss of about $3.4 million. The stock plunged 21.5% to $5.19. Etruscan Resources was flat at 56 cents after the company reported third-quarter net income of $1.4 million or $0.01 per share compared with $2.1 million or $0.02 per share in the same quarter last year. Canadian Royalties Inc. soared 36.2% at 79 cents after Jien International Investment and Goldbrook Ventures increased its offer for Canadian Royalies to about $192 million. Goldbrook shares leapt 33.3% in price to 20 cents. On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported consumer prices fell 0.9% in September, compared to a year ago, following a 12-month decline of 0.8% in August, and equaling the 0.9% drop in July, the biggest in more than 50 years. Excluding energy, the CPI rose 1.3% on yearly basis. Core CPI rose 0.2% month-on-month and up 1.4% year-over-year. It was expected to rise 0.2% on a monthly basis and 1.4% on an annual basis. The Canadian dollar skidded 0.30 cents to 96.30 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET Of the 14 TSX subgroups, nine finished the day higher. Gold was up 1.5%, materials were ahead 1.4%, while utilities advanced 1%. Real-estate suffered the heaviest losses, down 1%, financials were off 0.6% and information technology slid 0.3%. The TSX Venture Exchange finished ahead 3.87 points to 1,332.27, while the Nasdaq Canada index lost 13.06 points to 716.07. ON WALLSTREET In New York, stocks fell, pulling benchmark indexes down from a one-year high, as General Electric Co. and Bank of America Corp. reported disappointing results and a gauge of consumer confidence trailed economists' estimates. The dollar rose for the first time in five days. The Dow Jones Industrials faded 67.03 points to 9.995.91. The S&P 500 index lost 8.88 points to 1,087.68. The Nasdaq composite index gave back 16.49 points to 2,156.80. GE, the world's biggest maker of jet engines, slumped 4.2% after reporting $1.9 billion lU.S. ess revenue than analysts forecast. Bank of America retreated 4.6% following its $1-billion-U.S. loss. Google Inc. rose 3.8% as Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said the worst of the recession has passed and the company is now more focused on acquisitions. The VIX, the benchmark index for U.S. stock options, has fallen for 10 straight days, its longest streak of declines since May 2005, as investors pay less for protection against declines in equities. S&P 500 futures rose after the stock market closed yesterday following better-than-estimated earnings from Google. So far, 80.4% of companies in the index beat third- quarter earnings estimates. That compares with 72.3% during the entire April-through-June period, which matched the highest proportion in Bloomberg data going back to 1993. Eight of 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 turned lower today, led by a 2.6% drop in financial shares. Equities extended declines after the Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment decreased to 69.4 from 73.5 in September, which was the highest in more than a year. Measures of expectations and current conditions both fell. Financial shares have surged 144% since the S&P 500's 12-year low on March 9, compared with the index's overall gain of 61%. Treasury prices inched upward, lowering the yields for the benchmark 10-year note to 3.40% from Thursday's 3.45%. Prices and yields move in opposite directions. The price of a barrel of oil regained 95 cents to $78.57 U.S. Gold prices picked up a dollar to $1,052 U.S. an ounce.