Oct. 30, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --

Bay Street stocks could see some weakness on Friday morning as data showed the Canadian economy contracted slightly in the month of August. Commodities are also lower after notable gains yesterday. Soon after the week's and month's final session began, the S&P/TSX composite index skidded 6.34 points, to 11,046.80. On Thursday, the index surged 269.89 points or 2.49% to settle at 11,075.22, erasing a 2% drop from Wednesday. On the commodity front, crude oil and gold both slipped in price and copper is down 2.85 cents to $3.001 U.S. per pound. In earnings news, Tim Hortons announced third-quarter net income attributable to Tim Hortons of $61.18 million or $0.34 per share, compared to $78.76 million or $0.43 per share last year. Centerra Gold reported its third-quarter net earnings were $20.2 million U.S., 20% higher than $16.9 million U.S. in the previous year. Earnings per common share for the recent quarter grew 15% to $0.09 U.S. from $0.08 U.S. a year ago. Domtar Corp reported net earnings of $183 million U.S. or $4.24 U.S. per share for the third quarter, compared to $43 million U.S. or $1.00 U.S. per share for the third quarter of 2008. GLG Life Tech Corp. said its third-quarter net income after income taxes and non-controlling interests was $1.39 million compared with a loss of $0.95 million in the comparable period. The company reported earnings per share of $0.02 versus a loss per share of $0.01 for the quarter. Eldorado reported its third-quarter net income was $30.15 million U.S. or $0.08 U.S. per share, compared with $17.04 million U.S. or $0.05 U.S. per share last year. Imperial Oil reported its third-quarter profit fell to $547 million from $1.38 billion in the year-ago period. On a per share basis, net income decreased to $0.64 from $1.57. Operating revenues declined to $5.54 billion from $9.47 billion. Economically speaking, Statistics Canada reported real gross domestic product fell 0.1% in August. GDP was expected to rise 0.1%, after being flat in July. The Canadian dollar retreated 1.13 cents to 92.57 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET Of the 14 TSX subgroups, gainers nosed out losers seven to six. Telecoms posted the sharpest gains, up 3.1%, followed by a 1% hike for industrials and 0.8% for information technology. Losers were weighed down by gold, off 0.9%, energy, down 0.7%, and materials, off 0.6%. Real-estate stocks were flat. The TSX Venture Exchange was down 0.46 points to 1,309.96, while the Nasdaq Canada index tailed off 5.57 points to 652.78. ON WALLSTREET In New York, stocks slipped Friday morning, with financial shares leading the decline, as investors took a step back after the previous session's big rally. The Dow Jones Industrials gained slid 52.75 points to 9,909.83, following Thursday's jump, its biggest one-day hike since July 15. The S&P 500 index gave back 6.15 points to 1,059.96. The Nasdaq composite index lost 11.17 points to 2,086.38. Investors were focusing on economic reports Friday, including readings on personal income and spending, consumer sentiment and manufacturing. The Commerce Department reported before the market opened that personal income was flat in September and that personal spending fell by 0.5%, matching the expectations of Briefing.com consensus. The reports on consumer sentiment and manufacturing were to be released shortly after the opening bell. Sony posted on Friday a quarterly loss but it also trimmed its full-year loss forecast. Chevron reported that earnings plunged by more than half in the third quarter, to diluted earnings of $1.92 U.S. per share, from the year-ago quarter. The oil company also said that operating revenue plummeted to $45 billion U.S. in the third quarter, and blamed dropping crude oil and natural gas prices. The company's stock was barely changed. Treasury prices were up sharply, lowering the yields for the benchmark 10-year note to 3.43% from Thursday's 3.49%. Prices and yields move in opposite directions. The price of a barrel of oil stumbled 70 cents to $79.17 U.S. Gold prices dropped a dollar to $1,046 U.S. an ounce.