It was a stumbling end to a wild week Friday, heading into a long weekend, as equities in Toronto lost by triple-digit as resource and tech supplied most of the downward weight.
The TSX tumbled 230.88 points, or 1.4%, to conclude Friday and the week at 16,218.01, a drop on the week of 487 points, or 2.9%.
The Canadian dollar recovered 0.48 cents to 76.59 cents U.S.
Markets across North America will be shuttered Monday for Labour Day.
Tech stocks took the worst beatings, with Absolute Software letting loose $1.24, or 7.7%, to $14.83, while Photon Control sank 10 cents, or 6.3%, to $1.50.
In consumer discretionary stocks, Spin Master handed over a dollar, or 3.2%, to $30.07, while Dollarama dipped $1.45, or 2.8%, to $49.58.
Gold stocks thundered lower, most notably, Equinox Gold, off 98 cents, or 5.9%, to $15.70, OceanaGold sifted off 17 cents, or 5.9%, to $2.69.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported the economy grew by 246,000 (or 1.4%) in August, compared with 419,000 (or 2.4%) in July. The unemployment rate fell 0.7 percentage points to 10.2% in August.
Combined with gains of 1.2 million in May and June, this brought employment to within 1.1 million (or 5.7%) of its pre-COVID February level.
Also, Western University’s IVEY School of Business’ said its Purchasing Managers Index for August dropped to 67.8 from July's 68.5, but surpassing the 60.6 reading in August 2019.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange survived a near-full day of negative values and actually gained 3.34 points to 733.69. The loss on the week, though, was 11.6 points, or 1.56%.
All 12 TSX subgroups were negative on the day, with information technologies flopping 2.8%, while consumers discretionary issues dipped 1.4%, and gold lost 1.3%
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks clawed back most of their earlier losses on Friday as names that would benefit from the economy reopening outperformed and some tech shares recovered.
The Dow Jones Industrials came off its lows of the day and fell 159.42 points short of breakeven to close out Friday and the week at 28.133.31.F The 30-stock index sustained such a wild swing Friday that it actually registered positive with about an hour left in the session.
The S&P 500 fell 28.1 points to 3,426.96.
The NASDAQ Composite slid 144.97 points, or 1.3%, to 11,313.13.
Boeing shares rose more than 1% while bank stocks gained broadly. JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup were both up more than 2%. Bank of America climbed 3.5%. Wells Fargo advanced 1.1%. More beaten-down parts of the market rebounded Thursday and added to those gains Friday. Cruise operator Carnival advanced 2.6% on Friday.
Both Tesla and Apple rallied recently after announcing stock splits.
On Friday, Apple was down as much as 8.3%. With roughly one hour left in the session, however, the stock traded less than 1% lower.
To be sure, more beaten-down parts of the market rebounded Thursday and added to those gains Friday. Cruise operator Carnival advanced 2.6% on Friday. United Airlines rose about 1%.
On the economic beat, the U.S. Labor Department said the unemployment rate fell to 8.4% last month from 10.2% in July.
Economists polled by Dow Jones expected the rate to decline to 9.8%. As for overall jobs creation, employment in the U.S. grew by 1.37 million in August, topping an estimate of 1.32 million.
Bank stocks rose following the data release as Treasury yields climbed. Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase were all up at least 1.4%. Wells Fargo climbed 1%
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury slid, raising yields to 0.68% from Thursday’s 0.64%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell $1.31 to $40.06 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices skidded $7.40 to $1,930.40 U.S. an ounce.
