Equities in Canada’s largest centre opened lower on Friday after data showed the domestic economy added far fewer jobs than expected in April but the unemployment rate inched down to a new record low, suggesting a very tight labour market.
The S&P/TSX Composite slumped 241.17 points, or 1.2%, to begin Friday at 20,455.
The Canadian dollar skidded 0.34 cents at 77.61 cents U.S.
Enbridge reported a 4.3% rise in first-quarter profit, as a surge in demand for oil and gas boosted the pipeline operator's shipment volumes. Enbridge shares docked two cents to $57.21.
National Bank of Canada cut the rating on AutoCanada to sector perform from outperform. Shares in AutoCanada lost 62 cents, or 2.1%, to $28.57.
Vertical Research raised the rating on Bombardier to buy from hold. Bombardier shares acquired a penny to $1.22.
JP Morgan raised the target price on BCE to $70.00 from $68.00. Shares in BCE descended 35 cents to $68.69.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada revealed employment was little changed in April after two consecutive months of growth. The agency also said the unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage points to 5.2%.
Elsewhere, the IVEY Purchasing Managers Index withered to 66.3 in April from 74.2 in March, but improved on the 60.6 figure from April 2021.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slumped 15.75 points, or 2%, to 767.94.
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups bled in the first hour, information technology down 3.7%, health-care sliding 2.1%, and energy off 1.5%.
Only consumer staples were positive, and only 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks lost ground on Friday morning, continuing their slide after the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its worst day since 2020.
The 30-stock index woozed 226.73 points, or 3.1%, to 32,721.24.
The S&P 500 faltered 22.94 points to 4,123.93,
The NASDAQ Composite dropped 82.91 points, to 12,317.69.
The losses on Friday put the three major indexes on track to finish lower for the week despite starting with three straight positive sessions.
Thursday’s losses erased Wednesday’s big post-Federal Reserve meeting rally. Fed Chair Jerome Powell ruled out the prospect of larger rate hikes on Wednesday, sending the S&P 500 and the Dow to their best daily gains since 2020.
Technology stocks bore the brunt of Thursday’s fall, with cloud companies, e-retailers and mega-cap names seeing steep declines. That trend continued on Friday, with Microsoft and Amazon falling more than 1% and Netflix dropping 2.5%.
Speculative areas of the market such as biotech and solar energy were also hit hard on Friday. Illumina dropped more than 11%, while Enphase Energy fell nearly 5%.
On the earnings front, shares of Under Armour dropped more than 22% after the apparel company missed estimates on the top and bottom lines. That appeared to hurt rival Nike, whose shares dropped more than 6% and weighed on the Dow.
DoorDash tumbled 12% and Block dropped 3% after missing key estimates in their reports.
The losses came despite an April jobs report that showed a gain of 428,000 jobs, more than the 400,000 expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
Treasury prices jumped sharply, with yields falling to 3.09% from Thursday’s 3.03%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 93 cents to $109.19 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices took on $8.40 to $1,884.10 U.S. an ounce.
Indexes Still Negative After Thursday Carnage
