Canada's main stock index opened higher on Friday, as energy shares gained on the back of stronger crude prices, but the index was set for its third straight week of decline on concerns over rising risks of a global economic downturn.
The S&P/TSX regained 183.12 points, or 1%, to open the week’s last session at 18,900.24.
The Canadian dollar recovered 0.12 cents to 77.11 cents U.S.
BlackBerry topped Wall Street estimates for first-quarter revenue on Thursday, powered by growth in its auto products and cybersecurity services segments.
Shares in the former Research in Motion gained 26 cents, or 3.7%, to $7.25.
National Bank of Canada cut the rating on Neighbourly Pharmacy to $27.00 from $28.00. Neighbourly shares added 52 cents, or 2.2%, to $24.00.
CIBC cut the target price on Onex Corp. to $75.00 from $90.00. Onex shares gathered 27 cents to $65.54.
RBC initiated coverage on Storagevault Canada with an outperform rating and $8.00 price target. Storagevault opened Friday up 20 cents, or 3.6%, to $5.78.
Statistics Canada reported the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours—measuring number of employees receiving pay or benefits from their employer -- increased by 126,000 (+0.7%) in April.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 5.48 points to 637.27.
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups gained ground, with health-care rocketing 4.2%, information technology up 2.7%, and energy rumbling 1.8%.
The lone laggard was gold, down 0.7%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks jumped Friday as Wall Street looked to grind out a rare positive week in what has been a rough first half of the year.
The Dow Jones Industrials leaped 587.36 points, or 1.9%, to 31,264.72.
The S&P 500 hiked 83.93 points to 3,879.66.
The tech-heavy NASDAQ popped 291.24 points, or 2.6%, to 11,523.43.
Those moves come as the stock market appears to have found some stability this week, at least for the short term. The S&P 500 is up 4% for the week, while the NASDAQ is up 5% and the Dow is 3% higher. All three averages are looking to snap three-week losing streaks.
On the corporate front, shares of FedEx moved higher despite a mixed fourth-quarter report after the logistics company delivered an upbeat earnings forecast.
Treasury prices were unchanged, keeping yields at Thursday’s 3.09%.
Oil prices soared $1.77 to $106.04 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slid $3.70 to $1,826.10 U.S. an ounce.
