The following is excerpted from the 4 August 2010 edition of “thestar.com”

The Toronto stock market closed with a solid gain Tuesday as investors balanced conflicting economic reports.

The S&P/TSX composite index added 69.17 points to 11,782.60 on the first day of trading in August — often a slow month with low trading volumes.

The move higher followed a gain of about two per cent on all the major U.S. stock indexes Monday amid better-than-expected U.S. and European manufacturing data for July, strong earnings from European banks and news that China isn’t likely to take steps to slow its economy. The TSX was closed Monday.

Toronto’s gain on Tuesday was tempered by disappointing data on personal spending and incomes out of the U.S. and anticipation of employment numbers from both sides of the border later this week…