The TSX composite was lower, falling 25.81 points to 12,762.44 in mid-morning trading on Tuesday. The Dow was down 67.50 to 14,868.74, while NASDAQ slipped 48.40 to 3,721.98.
Today,
OceanaGold Corp. (
TSX: T.OGC,
Stock Forum) and
Pacific Rim Mining Corp. (
TSX: T.PMU,
Stock Forum) announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which OceanaGold has agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Pacific Rim in an all-share transaction to be completed by way of a statutory plan of arrangement under the
Business Corporations Act. Pacific Rim's principal asset is the high-grade, El Dorado Gold project in El Salvador. In mid-morning trading Pacific Rim was up 57% to $0.055 a share.
U.S. stocks were down as lawmakers sought to avoid a debt default and investors waited for the start of earnings season.
Senate Democrats are planning a test vote before the end of this week on a measure that would grant Obama authority to raise the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling, probably for a year unless two-thirds of both chambers of Congress disapprove.
The Treasury has said that it will exhaust measures to avoid exceeding the borrowing limit on Oct. 17. If that happens, the government will run out of cash to pay all of its bills at some point between Oct. 22 and Oct. 31, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The government began on Oct. 1 its first shutdown in 17 years, placing as many as 800,000 federal employees on unpaid leave and closing some services, after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on budgets before the start of a new fiscal year.
The price of gold gained US$4.39 to US$1,327.30 an ounce, while silver climbed US$0.08 to U$22.44 an ounce.