The Toronto stock market finished with a flourish Friday as Canadian employment gains in January breezed past expectations and traders put the best face on American jobs data that widely missed forecasts.
The S&P/TSX composite index pointed up 73.10 points to end the day and the week at 13,786.50
The Canadian dollar gained 0.25 cents to 90.57 cents U.S.
Much TSX strength was concentrated in mining stocks.
The gold sector was up as Barrick Gold climbed 39 cents to $20.85. Goldcorp moved forward 66 cents to $28.21.
The base metals component was ahead as March copper moved ahead one cent to $3.24 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources progressed 46 cents to $27.34.
The energy sector declined as Imperial Oil dipped 20 cents to $45.89, and Suncor took on 50 cents to $36.29.
Baytex Energy was a major weight after it said Thursday that it is expanding into the lucrative Eagle Ford oil shale development in Texas through a $2.6-billion acquisition of Aurora Oil & Gas Ltd. Its shares fell $1.81, or 4.4%, to $39.82.
On matters economic, figures released by Statistics Canada revealed that 29,000 jobs were created last month – mostly full-time -- and that the unemployment rate dipped two-10ths of a percentage point to stand at 7%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange strengthened 9.30 points to 962.10
All but two of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher at the closing bell on Friday, led by gold, up 3%, materials, up 2.2%, and the metals and mining group, surging 1.8%.
The lone laggards were energy and telecoms, each down 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
The three major American stock markets all rose Friday despite a tepid government jobs report showed that only 113,000 jobs were created in January.
The unemployment rate ticked down to 6.6%, its lowest level in five years. Economists expected the U.S. economy to have added 178,000 jobs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 165.55 points, or 1.1%, to 15,794.08.
The S&P 500 index added 23.59 points to 1,797.02. The NASDAQ grew 68.74 points to 4,125.86.
On the corporate front, shares of Apple rose after the Wall Street Journal reported that CEO Tim Cook said the company bought back a big chunk of its own stock after its disappointing earnings report last month.
LinkedIn shares dropped 6% after the professional networking site reported guidance that missed forecasts.
News Corp shares jumped following quarterly earnings that beat expectations.
Shares of Outerwall Inc. surged 12% on news that the company plans to buy back $350 million worth of stock.
And Expedia spiked 13% after the travel website company posted earnings that beat analysts' forecasts. The news helped lift shares of other travel sites Priceline and TripAdvisor
Stocks have had a choppy week of ups and downs. After sinking over 300 points Monday, the Dow logged its biggest gain of the year Thursday.
The Fed has cut the size of its so-called quantitative easing program twice since December: first from $85 billion per month to $75 billion, and then again to $65 billion U.S.
But the poor job growth could mean that the U.S. Federal Reserve will pause on pulling back, or tapering, its monthly bond purchases at its next meeting in March
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries gained ground, lowering yields to 2.68% from Thursday’s 2.70%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices took on $1.96 to $99.90 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices hiked $8.80 to $1,266.00 U.S. an ounce.
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