Stocks in Canada’s largest centre found their way into the green, but anxiously so, while weaker-than-expected U.S. and Canadian jobs data and wildfire-driven oil production cuts in Alberta weighed on the country's economic outlook.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 34.62 points to open Friday at 13,632.01
The Canadian dollar was negative 0.36 cents to 77.44 cents U.S.
Boosted by a pivotal CSeries deal with Delta Air Lines, Bombardier is rekindling sales talks with several U.S. and European carriers, even as it eyes China, the world's fastest-growing aviation nation.
Bombardier stock gained a penny to $2.02.
NBF raised the rating on Canadian Natural Resources to outperform from sector perform.
Natural Resources, which trades under the symbol CNQ, acquired 23 cents to $36.08.
Barclays cut the target on CI Financial to $29.00 from $30.00 with an overweight rating.
CI shares gave back 28 cents, or 1%, to $26.55.
RBC Capital raised the target price on SNC-Lavalin Group to $54.00 from $53.00, with an outperform rating.
SNC shares jumped $2.20, or 4.8%, to $47.89.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that the economy lost 2,100 jobs in April, leaving the unemployment rate at 7.1%.
Moreover, Western University`s IVEY Purchasing Managers' Index came in at 53.1 for April, down from 50.1 in March and 58.2 for March 2015.
The survey of purchasing managers asks if their buys increased, decreased, or remained static during the month, and any figure above 50 indicates an expansion.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange advanced 2.19 points to begin Friday at 659.32
Seven of the 13 TSX subgroups were higher in the first hour, with gold up 2.6%, metals and mining better by 2.5%, and materials up 1.8%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by health-care, ailing 0.3%, financials slipped 0.2%, and utilities, off 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stateside stocks traded in a range Friday after the headline figure in the April non-farm payrolls report missed expectations.
The Dow Jones Industrials sank 14.17 points to 17,646.54
The S&P 500 dropped 1.47 points to 2,049.16, Utilities fell more than 1% as the greatest laggard.
The NASDAQ Composite Index slipped 10.75 points to 4,706.34
Shares of Yelp were up 12% at $24.00 U.S. after the company's revenue beat expectations.
Endo International slumped 34.7% to $17.36 U.S. after the drug maker slashed its 2016 revenue and profit forecasts. The stock dragged other specialty drug makers such as Horizon Pharma, Mallinckrodt and Valeant Pharmaceutical.
Square fell 16.1% to $10.96 U.S. after the mobile payments company reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss.
The data showed creation of 160,000 jobs in the U.S., well below expectations of more than 200,000 jobs. Unemployment came in at 5%, as expected, while average hourly wages for the month rose 0.3%, also in-line with expectations. The labour force participation
rate fell to 62.8%.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury sagged, raising yields to 1.76% from Thursday’s 1.74%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions
Oil prices gained 59 cents a barrel to $44.37 U.S.
Gold prices slid $3.09 to $1,276.59 U.S. an ounce.
