Stocks in Canada’s largest market took a bath early Friday as energy stocks, hit by cooling oil prices, led the market lower, while heavily weighted bank stocks added to the declines.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index collapsed 107.81 points to begin Friday at 14,970.19
The Canadian dollar surged 0.47 cents to 77.52 cents U.S.
Paramount Resources said on Thursday that it would buy the Canadian subsidiary of U.S. oil and gas firm Apache Corp for $459.5 million.
Paramount shares dumped 74 cents, or 4%, to $18.00.
BMO cut the rating on Barrick Gold to market perform from outperform. Barrick shares doffed 26 cents, or 1.3%, to $20.08.
Keybanc cut the rating on CCL Industries to sector weight from overweight. CCL shares gained 11 cents to $61.54.
Raymond James raised the rating on Precision Drilling to strong buy from outperform. Precision Drilling shares lost 16 cents, or 3.9%, to $3.91.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported the economy created 45,000 jobs in June, bringing the unemployment rate down 0.1 percentage points to 6.5%.
Employment rose by 45,000 in June, mostly in part-time work. The unemployment rate was 6.5%, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous month.
Also, Western University’s IVEY Purchasing Managers’ Index ballooned to 61.6 for June from 53.8 in May, and 51.7 in June 2016. Any reading over 50 indicates purchasing managers are increasing their purchases.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange lopped off 1.16 points to start Friday’s session at 758.67.
All 12 TSX subgroups were lower to begin Friday, as energy tumbled 1.5%, gold slid 1.4%, and materials reversed 1.3%
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded higher on Friday on the back of stronger-than-expected employment data.
The Dow Jones Industrials recovered 59.7 points to begin the day at 21,379.74, with McDonald's contributing the most gains.
The S&P 500 gained 8.21 points to 2,417.96, with information technology leading advancers.
The NASDAQ grew 41.14 points to 6,130.61.
Entering Friday's session, the three major indexes were on track for weekly losses as tech stocks have fallen on the back of rising interest rates. Tech has been the best-performing sector this year, rising 15.6%.
Heading into next week, investors will watch out for releases of major quarterly reports. Citigroup, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase are all scheduled to report second-quarter results.
The U.S. Labor Department said the economy added 222,000 jobs in June. Economists expected an increase of 179,000. The unemployment rate ticked higher to 4.4% from 4.3%. Wage growth — which is viewed as a measure of inflation — rose by just 0.2%, however.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note lost strength, raising yields to 2.39% from Thursday’s 2.37%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gave back 97 cents to $44.55 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices dulled $7.80 to $1,215.50 U.S. an ounce.
