TORONTO: Canadian stocks ended a four-session slide on Thursday, eking out a modest gain, as a strong performance from gold miners offset financial losses on soft US economic data and mounting worries about Greece and Europe's fragile banking sector. Canada's sub-index of gold mining firms jumped nearly 6 percent as gold rallied for its largest one-day gain since late January. Gold's move allowed the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index to outperform US stocks, which hit a four-month low on Thursday. "We've performed better than the US markets today, which has not been the case for much of 2012 to this point," said Craig Fehr, Canadian market strategist at Edward Jones in St. Louis. Canada's top gold producers, Barrick Gold and Goldcorp, led the day's gains, both rising 6.9 percent to finish at C$38.16 and C$35.48, respectively. Smaller miners also jumped, with Eldorado Gold rising 5.8 percent to C$11.01 and Yamana Gold climbing 4.5 ...

NEW YORK: US stocks piled up losses Thursday as negative news continued from Europe, with Greece's woes deepening and Spain falling into recession. Strong quarterly earnings from Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, were not enough to shatter the gloom on Wall Street, sending the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 into their fifth straight day of losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 156.06 points, or 1.24 percent, to finish at 12,442.49. The S&P 500-stock index dropped 19.94 (1.51 percent) to 1,304.86, while the tech-rich Nasdaq plummeted 60.35 (2.10 percent) to 2,813.69. The three indices opened essentially flat then wallowed in the red the rest of the day. Discouraging US indicators on regional manufacturing and the economic outlook reinforced the bears. "Data from the US economic docket disappointed investors, while concerns out of Greece and Spain continued to do their part in sinking global sentiment," Charles Schwab & Co. analysts said. US financial stocks suffered, with ...

NEW YORK: US stocks were little changed on Thursday following a choppy futures session as investors focused on concerns about Spain's economy and banking system and reacted to headlines from Greece. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 5.00 points, or 0.04 percent, to 12,593.55. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 0.28 points, or 0.02 percent, to 1,324.52. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.78 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,874.82. Copyright Reuters, 2012 ...