Canada's main stock index fell on Friday, weighed by weak metal and oil prices, but was set to record a fifth consecutive week of gain on optimism around a faster economic recovery.
The TSX remained in the red 18.54 points by noon EDT from Thursday’s all-time high, at 19,210.33
The Canadian dollar nosed higher 0.03 cents at 79.63 cents U.S.
Corus Entertainment jumped 24 cents, or 4.1%, to $6.09, and Turquoise Hill
Resources increased $1.34, or 5.9%, to $23.91.
New Gold fell five cents, or 1.9%, to $2.29, while First Majestic Silver lost 27 cents, or nearly 1%, to $27.88.
On the economic platform, Statistics Canada reported that unemployment rose 303,000 (or 1.6%) in March. Combined with an increase of 259,000 (1.4%) in February, this brought employment to within 1.5% (or 296,000) of its February 2020 level.
The unemployment rate fell 0.7 percentage points to 7.5%, the lowest level since February 2020.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange docked 4.36 points to 958.37.
The 12 TSX subgroups were divided evenly, with health-care up 1.7%, while industrials gained 0.4%, and materials eked ahead 0.1%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by consumer discretionary, falling 0.4%, consumer staples, off 0.2%, and gold, diminishing 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 traded near its record high on Friday as Wall Street is set to wrap up the week with solid gains.
The Dow Jones Industrials climbed 85.61 points to 33,589.18
The broader index gained 9.6 points, to 4,106.77, for yet another intraday record.
The NASDAQ Composite squired higher 8.26 points to 13,837.57.
Stocks linked to the recovering economy led the gains again amid reopening optimism. Carnival Corp rose 2.4% after getting two upgrades on Wall Street amid pent-up demand and potential summer restart. General Electric climbed about 2%. JPMorgan added 0.9%.
The major averages are poised to end the week higher. The Dow is up more than 1% this week. The S&P 500 has gained about 2% since Monday, while the NASDAQ has rallied 2.4%.
On the data front, the producer price index, which measures wholesale price inflation, jumped in March. The March PPI data showed a rise of 1.0%, compared with a projected increase of 0.4% from economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
Year over year, the PPI surged 4.2%, which marks the largest annual gain in more than nine years.
Prices for 10-Year Treasurys fell, raising yields to 1.64% from Thursday’s 1.62%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped 17 cents to $59.43 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slumped $12.30 to $1,745.90 U.S. an ounce.
