Finance news. My opinion.

Energy and mining stocks gave lift to the Toronto stock market in early trading, while New York markets were weak in the wake of earnings warnings and another indication of huge job losses in the United States during January.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index moved ahead 52.6 points to 8,681.2 after a flat showing Tuesday.

The TSX Venture Exchange climbed 6.83 points to 876.08 and the Canadian dollar moved up 0.06 cent to 81.35 cents US.

New York's Dow Jones industrials inched up 1.5 points to 8,079.9 on top of a 142-point rise.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 3.96 points to 1,520.26 after gaining 22 points while the S&P 500 added 2.6 points to 841.1.

The Walt Disney Co. reported a 32 per cent decline in quarterly profits amid a downturn that chief executive Robert Iger called "likely to be the weakest economy in our lifetime."

Iger also suggested that a broad-based decline of the DVD business was occurring as consumers shifted viewing habits onto the Internet and other formats and Disney shares fell $1.31 to US$19.31.

Costco Wholesale Corp. said its profit for the quarter ending in February will "substantially" miss Wall Street estimates due to poor sales and margins. Same store sales declined two per cent and the retailer now expects earnings for its fiscal second quarter to miss the consensus estimate of 70 cents per share.

It also said it will not provide earnings guidance for the rest of the fiscal year and its shares fell $3.60 to US$42.52.

Kraft Foods shares lost $2.50 to US$26.24 after it said fourth-quarter profit fell 72 per cent due to costs related to a restructuring program.

The maker of Velveeta, Oreo cookies and Maxwell House coffee cut 2009 guidance to $1.88 per share from $2 per share. Analysts expect a profit of $2.02 per share.

Panasonic Corp., is slashing 15,000 jobs and shutting down 27 plants worldwide to cope with plunging demand for its TVs, semiconductors and other electronics products.

It also announced a net loss of 63.1 billion yen or US$709 million for the October-December quarter and lowered its forecast for the fiscal year through March to a net loss of 380 billion yen or US$4.2 billion, its first annual loss in six years.

Two days before the release of January employment data, the latest ADP Employment Report in the U.S. showed that 522,000 jobs were lost in January. That is in line with consensus forecasts.

The TSX energy sector climbed 0.5 per cent as the March crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $1 to US$41.78 a barrel. Suncor Inc. (TSX: SU) gained 26 cents to $23.79.

The April bullion contract on the Nymex moved up $11 cash advance.90 to US$904.40, lifting the gold sector 1.5 per cent. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX: G) rose 89 cents to $35.69.

The base metals sector climbed one per cent as Teck Cominco Ltd. (TSX: TCK.B) advanced 14 cents to $4.65.

Shares in HudBay Minerals Inc. (TSX: HBM) were eight cents higher to $4.83 after the company said that the unions at its operations in Flin Flon and Snow Lake, Man., have voted to ratify new three-year collective agreements effective Jan. 1, 2009.

The financial sector was the biggest TSX drag, down one per cent with Scotiabank (TSX: BNS) off 37 cents to $29.82.

The Dutch parent company of ING Canada Inc. (TSX: IIC) is selling a $2-billion stake in the Canadian subsidiary. The sale will not affect ING Group's current ownership of ING Bank of Canada, known as ING Direct, which is a separate and distinct company from ING Canada. ING Canada shares tumbled $5.11 or 15 per cent to $28.68.

Shares in Research In Motion (TSX: RIM) slipped 35 cents to $67.92 after top executives reached a deal to settle a dispute with the Ontario Securities Commission over the company's past stock option practices.

The OSC will hold a hearing Thursday to consider the settlement that includes co-chief executives Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis and several other executives and directors. The OSC has accused RIM and several individuals, including Balsillie and Lazaridis, of receiving back-dated stock options.

Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (TSX: MFI) shares were down five cents to $10.61 after it said Tuesday that it plans to restate and refile its 2007 consolidated annual financial statements to lower its earnings due to an understatement of future tax costs related to the sale of its animal nutrition business. The company said it will report earnings for the year ended Dec. 31, 2007 of $194.9 million or $1.50 per diluted share, down from previously reported earnings of $207.1 million or $1.59 per diluted share.

Railpower Technologies Corp. (TSX: P), Quebec-based maker of eco-friendly locomotives, says it is seeking court protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. Its U.S. subsidiary, Railpower Hybrid Technologies Corp., is also seeking creditor protection. Its shares plunged 1.5 cents to 6.5 cents.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 2.7 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 2.3 per cent.

Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.8 per cent, Germany's DAX index was up 1.1 per cent, and France's CAC-40 rose 1.35 per cent.

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Unit owners of Buckley Towers, a 40-year-old condominium complex in North Miami Beach, go to trial in Miami federal court Monday in a high-stakes battle over more than $18 million they claim the condo’s insurance company owes for damages caused by Hurricane Wilma.

The twin buildings, home to more than 500 mostly elderly unit owners, face possible condemnation by Miami-Dade County because of water damage, mildew, utility problems and roof or structural damage that owners claim is related to Wilma’s impact in 2005.

The lawsuit, filed by Daniel Rosenbaum, of Katzman Garfinkel Rosenbaum’s office in West Palm Beach, is the latest in a string of federal suits against global condo insurer QBE Insurance.

The court challenge highlights the plight of some older buildings in Miami-Dade County as they near their 40-year anniversary under the county’s recertification program. The program requires that commercial and condominium buildings undergo a rigorous re-inspection for safety when they hit the four-decade mark.

Recertification for Buckley Towers is crucial, but might not happen soon enough. The county already started a countdown toward condemning the buildings as uninhabitable last fall. That countdown was reset recently due to a technicality when Rosenbaum claimed the buildings had only been occupied for 39 years. But a new deadline for condemnation is approaching in the next few weeks.

According to the complaint, QBE owes more than $18 million for repairs. But, the insurer said in its answer to the complaint that Buckley Towers failed to comply with efforts to investigate damages at the building, and many problems are due to “wear and tear.”

QBE and its South Florida attorneys did not respond to requests for comment. According to the answer the company filed to the lawsuit, “some of the plaintiff’s alleged damages would be excluded … for wear and tear, decay, deterioration and the like” and for “rust or other corrosion, decay, deterioration, hidden or latent defect or any quality in the property that causes it to damage or destroy itself free credit report and score.”

Rosenbaum already won an $8.14 million judgment against QBE on behalf of Chalfonte Condominium in Boca Raton last year. But the Buckley case, he said, is far more dire.

“The people at Chalfonte were able to make repairs themselves and then argue over money,” Rosenbaum said. “The people at Buckley Towers are not so fortunate. Many are retirees on fixed incomes.”

Buckley Towers are two Y-shaped buildings, a popular style in the late 1960s and ’70s. That configuration caught Hurricane Wilma’s winds for a sustained period on Oct. 24, 2005, according to records from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

Rosenbaum is presenting radar images that he says show the North Miami area was especially hard hit. He said the towers actually wracked, or twisted slightly, in 105-mph sustained winds, causing structural joints to loosen.

The building had paid a premium of $202,896 for a 12-month policy. The condo, which has an annual budget of more than $2 million, also is struggling with foreclosures.

It received a $1.2 million loan last summer from the U.S. Small Business Administration to pursue the most needed repairs. A special assessment of $1.49 million last year did not address major needs. An assessment to cover all the damages to the building would cost about $8,000 to $10,000 per unit, the homeowner’s association has estimated.

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