Equities in Canada’s largest centre were modestly higher on Thursday, a day after unexpectedly strong U.S. jobs data, but losses in technology and mining shares kept overall gains in check.
The TSX was down 20.52 points to open Thursday at 33,233.67.
The Canadian dollar was unchanged at 73.67 cents U.S.
Manulife Financial reported a lower fourth-quarter profit, while its peer Sun Life reported a jump in profit for the same quarter.
Manulife shares subsided $1.54, or 3%, to $49.86, while Sun Life gained $4.10, or 4.7%, to $92.17.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly backed a measure disapproving of Trump's tariffs on Canada, although it is unlikely to garner enough support in Congress to overcome an expected Trump veto.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange changed direction and gained 3.52 points to 1,035.72.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were stronger by the final bell Wednesday, with energy up 2.8%, gold, brighter by 2.3%, and consumer staples up 1.8%
The five laggards were weighed most by information technology, bludgeoned 5.5%, while real-estate slid 3.1%, and financials were poorer 1.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 saw modest gains on Thursday, a day after a solid jobs report drew mixed emotions and traders took in more earnings news from big companies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average spiked 230.83 points to 50,352.23.
The much-broader index eked up 6.53 points to 6,948.
The NASDAQ let go of 67.18 points to 22,999.29.
Cisco Systems slid 9% after the maker of networking hardware such as switches and routers issued disappointing guidance for the current quarter.
Those moves come after a downbeat trading day on Wall Street. Stocks ended the session lower after earlier rallying off the back of a strong jobs report, which showed sharp jobs growth of 130,000 last month, far above what economists were expecting, and much higher than the downwardly revised December gain. The unemployment rate ticked lower to 4.3% from 4.4%.
The report was a relief for investors who worried it would show a drop-off in the labor market, following a raft of recent data that’s indicated slowing growth in a “no hire, no fire” environment.
Yet the strong payrolls numbers also muddy the Federal Reserve’s interest rate outlook and could mean fewer rate cuts than traders were hoping for if higher inflation also remains an issue.
That underscores the importance of Friday’s consumer price index, which could show the central bank just what is needed for its dual mandate to come into better balance.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained, lowering yields to 4.15% from Wednesday’s 4.17%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slid 84 cents to $64.09 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices faltered $22.70 to $5,075.80 U.S. an ounce.
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