An anti-austerity protester draped with a Greek flag sits in front of police guarding parliament in Athens February 11, 2012 during a demonstration on the second day of a 48-hour strike by Greek workers unions.Reuters
Stocks were mixed on Friday, with U.S. stocks turning in modest gains as investors grow more optimistic of a Greek bailout. However, Canadian stocks were held back by commodity producers.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 12,979.87, up 45.79 points or 0.4 per cent. The broader S&P 500 closed at 1,361.23, up 3.19 points or 0.2 per cent. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index closed at 12,458.30, down 27.29 points or 0.2 per cent.
In the U.S., economically sensitive areas of the market showed some of the biggest gains, with Intel Corp. up 2 per cent, DuPont up 1.9 per cent and General Electric Co. up 1.4 per cent. Defensive health care stocks and utilities fell.
In Canada, financials were essentially flat overall, with Royal Bank of Canada down 0.4 per cent and Toronto-Dominion Bank up 0.5 per cent. However, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. stood out: It fell 4.3 per cent after reporting on Thursday evening a loss of $780-million in the fourth quarter.
Canadian energy stocks were flat, but materials slid 1 per cent, due largely to retreating gold producers. Barrick Gold Corp. fell 2.4 per cent and Goldcorp Inc. fell 0.9 per cent.
The moves come as markets gyrated this week: The Dow suffered its biggest one-day tumble of the year on Wednesday over concerns that euro zone members were going to let Greece slide into default, instead of sustaining it with bailout funds.
Those concerns have eased considerably over the past two days, with reports on Friday that German, Italian and Greek leaders are confident that the euro zone will reach an agreement on a rescue deal at a finance ministers meeting on Feb. 20.