Canada Stocks Losing to U.S. by Most Since ’98 as Commodity Shares Retreat

Canadian stocks (SPTSX) trailed U.S. equities this year by the most since 1998 as the European debt crisis and slowing growth in developing markets drove down commodity shares. The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 12 percent (SPTSX) in 2011 through yesterday, while the S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent, the first year Canada has lagged behind the U.S. since 2003 and the widest gap since crude oil slid below $11 a barrel 13 years ago. Energy and mining stocks, almost half of Canada’s market by value, fell as Suncor Energy Inc. (SU), the country’s largest oil and gas producer, lost 24 percent and Teck Resources Ltd., its biggest base-metals company, plunged 43 percent. Canada’s oil, gas and metal shares slumped after valuations soared in 2009-2010, as oil prices doubled and copper tripled after the world pulled out of a recession, spurring a 50 percent surge in the S&P/TSX. This year, the level of the S&P/TSX Energy Index relative to profits fell as much as 43 percent, after hitting the highest multiple since at least 2002 in March. The Euribor-OIS spread, a measure of euro-region banks’ reluctance to lend to one another, increased sixfold from June 14 to Dec. 1 as the debt crisis spread. Growth of industrial production in China, the biggest user of base metals and second- largest oil consumer, fell to the lowest rate since August 2009 last month. The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB commodity index plunged 18 percent from its post-2008 high on April 29 to yesterday.

Brent oil trading near $114 as Libyan oil exports resume

Brent oil prices open today’s trading session near $114 a barrel as news that Libya issued a shorter than anticipated timetable for the resumption of oil exports from the country. Latest Brent Oil Price In London, Brent crude oil futures for May 2011 delivery was trading at $114.56 a barrel, 06.15 GMT this morning on the ICE Futures Exchange, after slipping 0.8 percent lower in Monday’s trading session. Libya Oil Exports Could Resume in a Week Crude oil exports from Libya, which had fallen to virtually zero since the early stages of the conflict, could resume in less than a week, rebel representative Ali Tarhoni said, according to Agence France Presse