Futures for Canada's commodity-heavy main stock index slipped on Friday as gold prices dipped and investors braced for a crucial U.S. payrolls report that would shape rate cut expectations.
The TSX Composite gained 52.77 points to close Thursday at 20,871.35.
March futures tumbled 0.5%.
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.09 cents to 74.79 cents U.S.
Brookfield Asset Management said on Friday it would buy American Tower Corp's loss-making Indian operations for $2.5 billion.
Services of wireless carrier Rogers Communications were briefly disrupted for more than 55,000 users in Toronto on Thursday due to a technical issue.
Friday, Statistics Canada told us employment was virtually unchanged in December, and the unemployment rate held steady at 5.8%.
What’s more, Western University’s IVEY School of Business was due out (10 a.m.) with its December PMI report.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange acquired 1.49 points Thursday to 551.56.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures slipped early Friday ahead of a key jobs report, as Wall Street tried to shake off a sluggish start to January.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials slid 89 points, or 0.2%, to 37,627.
Futures for the S&P 500 dropped 11 points, or 0.2%, at 4,718.50.
Futures for the NASDAQ sank 42 points, or 0.3%, to 16,403.
The three major averages are all on track to break nine-week winning streaks, with the NASDAQ suffering the biggest loss for the week at 3.3%.The S&P 500 is fading 1.7% and the Dow is down 0.7%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 regained 0.2%, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index lost 0.7%.
Oil prices gained 87 cents to $73.00 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dipped $2.60 to $2,047.40 U.S. an ounce.
