Canada's main stock index faded by noon on Friday as gains in shares of energy companies more than offset losses in the heavyweight financials index.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index doffed 2.19 points to greet noon Friday at 16,059.31
The Canadian dollar demurred 0.05 cents at 77.23 cents U.S.
The biggest boost to the index was in shares of Suncor Energy, up 65 cents, or 1.3%, to $52.29, after it filed a mixed shelf offering.
The financials sector proved the biggest drag on the index. Shares of Bank of Nova Scotia fell $1.58, or 1.2%, to $77.00, and dragged the financials sector lower after news to buy doctors' wealth services firm MD Financial Management.
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Laurentian Bank, which jumped $1.47, or 3.3%, to $46.67, after reporting second-quarter results.
Shares of Cott Corp, which rose 47 cents, or 2.3%, to $20.90, were the second biggest advancer on the TSX.
Detour Gold fell 34 cents, or 3.3%, to $9.91, the most on the TSX while the second biggest decliner was New Gold Inc down six cents, or 2%, to $2.95
On the economic beat, Markit's seasonally-adjusted manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index data came in for May at 56.2, up from 55.5 in April, pointing to the strongest overall improvement in business conditions since April 2011.
In Italy, anti-establishment parties revived coalition plans on Thursday, while in Spain Socialist Pedro Sanchez took over as prime minister on Friday, after outgoing leader Mariano Rajoy lost a confidence vote.
Canada decided to impose retaliatory tariffs on $16.6 billion worth of U.S. exports and challenge U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs under the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Thursday.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture sank 0.05 points to 763.05
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher, as information technology gained 0.8%, energy gathered 0.6%, and consumer staples improved 0.5%.
The four laggards were weighed mostly by utilities, down 0.5%, financials, off 0.4%, and gold, sliding 0.1%.
Industrials were unchanged at noon hour.
ON WALLSTREET
A stronger-than-expected jobs report pushed stocks higher on Friday as Wall Street recovered some of the losses seen in the previous session.
The Dow Jones Industrials surged 231.18 points, or 1%, to 24,647.02, with Goldman Sachs among the biggest contributors of gains in the index.
The S&P 500 leaped 28.3 points, or 1.1%, to 2,733.44, as financials rose 0.9%, and tech took on 1.5%.
The NASDAQ hiked 106.31 points, or 1.4%, to 7,548.42
Bank stocks followed rates higher. J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America all rose more than 0.9%.
Friday's gains come as stocks fell Thursday after Trump slapped tariffs on the European Union, Mexico and Canada. The E.U. followed up the U.S. announcement by saying it would impose countermeasures of its own, while Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said the country plans to slap dollar-for-dollar tariffs on the U.S.
The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in May, while economists expected a gain of 188,000. Average hourly earnings, meanwhile, rose 0.3% last month while the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.8%.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury dropped, raising yields to 2.9% from Thursday’s 2.86%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices faded 40 cents at $66.64 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices faded $4.10 to $1,300.60 U.S. an ounce.
