Prep Business Report – CP

The Toronto stock market closed higher as traders hoped a strong report from the American financial sector indicated another upbeat earnings season from North American corporations.

The S&P/TSX composite index ran up 46 points to 15,171, but was well off the highs of the session as mining stocks fell alongside sliding prices for copper and gold.

The Canadian dollar rose 17-100ths to 93.33 cents U-S, two days before the Bank of Canada delivers its next interest rate announcement.

The Dow Jones industrials closed up 112 points to 17,055.

The Nasdaq advanced 25 points to 4,440 as Citigroup posted quarterly earnings that beat forecasts.

Elsewhere in the financial group, Bank of America reports earnings on Wednesday.

Chip giant Intel posts results tomorrow while Google reports on Thursday.

The week is capped by earnings from General Electric on Friday.

The major domestic report of the week comes from Canadian Pacific Railway on Thursday.

Higher costs are expected to weigh on results but analysts are still positive on C-P and Canadian National because of rising grain and oil shipments.

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(House-Prices)

A widely-watched study indicates that Canadian housing price action is mixed across the country.

The Teranet-National Bank national composite house price index rose 0.9 per cent in June from the previous month.

The increase came as prices were up in seven of the 11 markets tracked by the index.

Two cities posted particularly strong gains, with Hamilton up 3.1 per cent and Montreal ahead 2.8 per cent.

But compared with a year ago, the housing index is up 4.4 per cent, the lowest gain in six months with large variations across the country.

Calgary gained 8.1 per cent compared with a year ago and Toronto and Vancouver climbed 6.1 per cent.

However, prices in Ottawa-Gatineau fell 1.7 per cent compared with a year ago, Quebec City dropped 2.4 per cent and Halifax lost 2.5 per cent. (The Canadian Press)

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(Northern-Gateway)

Two more legal challenges have been filed against the federal government’s approval of the Northern Gateway oil pipeline, with more expected.

As the 30-day deadline nears, the Heiltsuk (helts-uk) and the Kitasoo-Xaixais (kit-ah-soo shy-shy) added their names to a growing list of groups that want the Federal Court of Appeal to review the cabinet decision.

The First Nations’ territory on the central coast of B-C is along the tanker path of the project.

The environmental group B-C Nature has also filed an application with the court, bringing to at least four the number of legal challenges that have been filed in the past few days.

All claim the federal cabinet’s decision last month is invalid because it’s based on a flawed report from a joint review panel. (The Canadian Press)

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(Wireless-Phone-Pricing)

The price of basic wireless phone service has gone up 16 per cent since last year.

But a study commissioned by Industry Canada and the C-R-T-C, the sector’s regulator, says other packages with more features have held steady or gone down.

The study says the average price for the most basic cellphone service with low usage was $35.70 per month.

Prices for mid-level packages with average call volumes and more features than the basic packages were unchanged, at about $45.26 per month.

Meanwhile, a third level of service with high call volumes, a full set of features and up to one gigabyte of data usage declined in price by 15 per cent, to about 80 dollars per month. (The Canadian Press)

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(US-Earns-Citigroup)

American bank Citigroup says that its net income dropped in the second quarter.

A 3.8 billion-dollar charge to settle claims over its risky subprime mortgage business pushed down its net income to 181-million dollars from 4.18-billion a year earlier.

However, excluding the charges and an accounting loss, the bank’s second-quarter profit rose one per cent to 3.93-billion dollars, which beat estimates.

Revenue was 19.4-billion dollars, excluding the accounting loss, compared with 20-billion a year earlier. (The Associated Press)

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On the Markets:

The S&P/TSX composite index ran up 46 points to 15,171.

The Canadian dollar rose 17-100ths to 93.33 cents U-S.

The Dow Jones industrials closed up 112 points to 17,055.

The Nasdaq advanced 25 points to 4,440