Canada's main stock index advanced on Friday as a bullish U.S. jobs report helped ease concerns about the strength of the economic recovery and drove gains across most major sectors.
The S&P/TSX composite index remained higher by 29.14 points to end the day and the week at 14,789.78
The Canadian dollar stumbled 0.81 cents at 88.83 cents U.S.
The benchmark TSX index looked set to record its fifth straight weekly decline with sentiment hit this week by geopolitical concerns, news about the first case of Ebola in the United States and worries about when the U.S. Federal Reserve might raise interest rates.
Health-care issues lead the charge, as Valeant Pharmaceuticals climbed $4.26, or 3.3%, to $146.23.
Among consumer discretionary stocks, AutoCanada jumped $4.25, or 7.4%, to $61.49.
Financials climbed as Toronto-Dominion Bank advanced 0.3% to $54.14, and Bank of Montreal rose 0.3% to $82.02.
Among energy producers, Suncor Energy lost 0.5% to $39.85.
The gold-mining sector tumbled, with the price of bullion falling below $1,200 U.S. for the first time this year. Barrick Gold dropped 3.2% to $15.91, and Goldcorp shed 3.5% to $25.47.
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 4.99 points to 882.54.
Nine of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher, with health-care up 2%, consumer discretionary stocks up 1.5%, and industrials surging 1.4%.
The five laggards were weighed mostly by gold, down 3.7%, materials, sliding 2.5%, and materials, down 1.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks surged on Friday, with the Dow industrials jumping 200-plus points, after a better-than-projected payrolls report bolstered a positive view of the U.S. economy.
The Dow Jones Industrials leaped 208.64 points, or 1.2%, to 17,009.69.
The S&P 500 muscled up 21.73 points to 1,967.90. The NASDAQ index shot up 45.42 points to 4,475.62.
JPMorgan Chase gained, a day after disclosing a security breach that impacted about 76 million households.
Alcoa next week marks the unofficial start of the earnings season, with the aluminum producer slated to report third-quarter results on Wednesday.
Mylan Inc. shares rallied 7.9% after the pharmaceutical company raised its third-quarter and full-year earnings guidance.
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. shares jumped 9.7%, as the widening breadth of Ebola cases in the U.S. gave brighten the company’s business outlook. Tekmira is one of a handful of biotech companies working on treatments for the Ebola virus.
In commodities-related shares, plunging gold prices put pressure on miners, while energy groups suffered from falling oil prices. Oil and mining stocks were among the worst performers on the S&P 500 on Friday. Diamond Offshore Drilling fell 4.4%, Newmont Mining Corporation was down 2.9%.
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 2.45% from Thursday’s 2.44%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped $1.27 to $89.74 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost $22.60 to $1,192.00 U.S. an ounce.
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