Canada's main stock index retreated Friday from Thursday’s all-time highs hit, as a decline in oil prices on easing tensions in the Middle East pressured energy stocks.
The TSX Composite Index lopped 32.16 points to 17,203.41, in Friday’s first hour.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.09 cents to 76.64 cents U.S.
Berenberg raised the target price on Endeavour Mining to $32.00 from $28.00. Endeavour shares made headway, up 32 cents, or 1.4%, to $23.60.
RBC cut the target price on Parkland Fuel to $53.00 from $54.00. Parkland shares fell back 54 cents, or 1.1%, to $47.39.
Scotiabank raised the target price on IA Financial Corp to $77.00 from $74.00. IA shares 31 cents to $73.31.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that the economy created 35,000 jobs in December, a jump of 0.2% from the month before. The unemployment rate fell 0.3 percentage points to 5.6%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 1.05 points to 578.72
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly divided in Friday’s opening hour. Gold increased 0.6%, while utilities and materials each soared 0.3%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by health-care, down 1.7%, while energy fell 0.9%, and consumer discretionary lost 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose to record highs on Friday despite weaker-than-expected jobs data as Wall Street concluded a volatile week chalk full of geopolitical concerns.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 20.9 points to 28,977.80, breaking above 29,000 for the first time ever.
The S&P 500 took on 5.4 points to 3,280.10
The NASDAQ hiked 22.74 points to 9,226,60, to yet another all-time high.
Through Thursday’s close, the S&P 500 was up 1.2% for the week. The Dow chugged higher 1.1%, and NASDAQ popped 2%, in that time period.
Pfizer shares rose 1.7% to lead the Dow’s gains. Health care and tech were the best-performing sectors in the S&P 500, climbing 0.5% each.
The U.S. economy added 145,000 jobs in December. Economists expected the U.S. economy to have added 160,000 jobs last month.
Wages also disappointed, growing by just 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Economists had forecast a gain of 3.1%. December was also the first month since July 2018 that wages grew by less than 3% from the year before.
Prices for the 10-Year U.S. Treasury regained ground, dropping yields to 1.84% from Thursday’s 1.86%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices ditched 42 cents to $59.14 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices added a dollar to $1,555.30 U.S. an ounce.
