North American markets were higher Friday as data showed a healthy increase in U.S. job creation during September.
The S&P/TSX composite index remained higher by 54.49 points to greet noon at 14,815.13
The Canadian dollar stumbled 0.80 cents at 88.84 cents U.S.
On the corporate front, Iamgold Corp. will sell its Niobec mine in Quebec for about $500 million U.S. to a group led by veteran mining executive Aaron Regent. Iamgold shares slipped eight cents to a 52-week low of $2.96.
On Friday, the TSX energy sector was down a little, as Athabasca Oil capsized 19 cents, or 3.5%, to $5.21, while Suncor gave back two cents, or 0.05%, to $40.02.
The metals and mining sector gave back ground while December copper was up two cents to $3.02 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources retreated 52 cents, or 2.5%, to $20.05.
The TSX energy sector is down 11% over the past month while the mining sector has fallen 10%, leaving the TSX still up 8.4% for the year, off summer highs of 14%.
In the economic docket, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday that Canada's budget deficit for the 2013/14 fiscal year is likely to be $5.2 billion, rather than the $16.6 billion forecast in February.
Moreover, Canada's merchandise imports rose 3.9% in August, while exports shrank 2.5%. Statistics Canada also said that, as a result, Canada's trade balance with the world went from a surplus of $2.2 billion in July to a deficit of $610 million in August.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange regained 0.97 points to 878.52, after taking a pounding over the last several days.
Nine of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher by midday, with industrials trucking along 2%, health-care up 1.7%, and consumer discretionary stocks advancing 1.4%.
The five laggards were weighed most by gold, off 3.1%, materials, down 1.9%, and metals and mining, down 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks surged on Friday, after a better-than-projected payrolls report bolstered a positive view of the U.S. economy.
The Dow Jones Industrials leaped 165.65 points, or 1%, to 16,966.70.
The S&P 500 gained 19.38 points to 1,965.55. The NASDAQ index shot up 48.06 points to 4,478.26.
JPMorgan Chase gained in early New York trading, a day after disclosing a security breach that impacted about 76 million households.
The U.S. economy added 248,000 jobs in September and hiring in August turned out to be a lot stronger than forecasts, showing the U.S. economy entered the fall with rising momentum. The unemployment rate fell to 5.9%, falling below 6% mark for the first time since 2008.
Separately, the U.S. trade deficit fell 0.5% to $40.1 billion U.S. in August, marking the lowest level since January as the nation exported a record amount of petroleum and imported less.
And the Institute for Supply Management said its service index fell to 58.6 in September from 59.6 the month before, with last month's reading better than the expected 58.5 estimate.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries slid, raising yields to 2.46% from Thursday’s 2.44%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped $1.35 to $89.66 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost 20 dollars to $1,194.60 U.S. an ounce.
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