North American stocks fell slightly at the start of trading on Thursday. But given the tumultuous declines of the past two days, this will likely be seen as a sign of stability.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 27 points or 0.3 per cent, to 10,841. The broader S&P 500 fell 4 points or 0.4 per cent, to 1162. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index fell 3 points, to 11,872.
It was a busy day for Canadian earnings news. Magna International Inc. beat expectations with a profit of $223-million, versus a los of $200-million last year. Perhaps more importantly, chairman and founder Frank Stronach proposed ending the company's dual-class share structure, which has allowed him to control the company with a relatively small slice of actual equity. The shares surged 14 per cent.
Meanwhile, Manulife Financial Corp. reported earnings of $1.15-billion, versus a loss of $1.07-billion last year. The shares rose 4.2 per cent. Sun Life Financial Inc. rose 1.4 per cent after it reported stronger than expected earnings of $409-million. And BCE Inc. rose 0.4 per cent after its earnings surged 60 per cent over last year.
In the United States, investors were busy interpreting economic news. Initial jobless claims for last week fell by 7,000, to 444,00 - which was in line with expectations. U.S. productivity slowed last month, but nonetheless beat expectations with a 3.6 per cent rise.
And sales at stores open for at least one year, otherwise known as same store sales, painted an unclear picture of retail spending last month. Abercrombie & Fitch shares fell 6 per cent and Target Corp. fell 1.6 per cent.