Canada's main stock index opened higher on Friday, led by gains in shares of material companies that got a lift from rising gold prices.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index restored 46.98 points to begin the week’s last session at 16,457.20
The Canadian dollar recovered 0.19 cents to 74.43 cents
Jefferies cut the price target on Cronos Group to $15.00 from $17.00. Cronos shares gained 18 cents to $22.67.
Eight Capital raised the price target on Manulife Financial to $30.00 from $28.00. Manulife shares eked out a gain of four cents to $24.66.
Desjardins cut the price target on Rogers Sugar to $6.00 from $6.25. Shares dissolved 25 cents, or 4.1%, to $5.91.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 8.63 points to 601.28
All but one of the 12 Toronto subgroups gained ground, with materials and gold stronger 0.8% each, while consumer staples picked up 0.5%.
Only communications missed the party, sagging 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Friday, rebounding from a two-day loss, as data showed U.S. job creation was stronger than expected in April.
The Dow Jones Industrials rocketed 152 points to 26,417
The S&P 500 advanced 18.5 points to 2,936,
The NASDAQ Composite index rebounded 71.5 points to 7,805.75. Shares of Amazon got a boost from an investment by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
Amazon’s stock rose for the first time in five days after Buffett told the media Thursday that one of his investment managers at Berkshire Hathaway has been buying Amazon. Shares of the e-commerce giant were up nearly 3% Friday.
Shares of Tesla also climbed more than 2% after the electric car maker said Friday it increased the size of the stock and bond offering announced a day earlier and CEO Elon Musk intends to buy even more equity.
Despite Friday’s gains, major averages are all set to post weekly losses as the Fed Chairman’s comments triggered a two-day sell-off earlier in the week. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both hit all-time highs on Monday amid solid earnings reports.
The U.S. added a robust 263,000 new hires in April while the unemployment rate fell to 3.6%, the lowest since December 1969, according to a report Friday from the U.S. Labor Department. The non-farm payroll growth far outpaced Wall Street expectations of 190,000 and a 3.8% jobless rate, according to Dow Jones estimates.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell sharply, raising yields to 2.52% from Thursday’s 2.55%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regained 13 cents to $61.94 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices recovered $7.80 to $1,279.80 U.S. an ounce.
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