Canada's main stock index opened lower on Friday and was set for its third straight week of losses, as investors were cautious after a tech rout in the previous session, while assessing data that showed unemployment rate hit a six-month high in October.
Equities in Toronto pointed lower on Friday, after Canadian shares were caught up in an artificial intelligence-driven rout in U.S. stocks in the prior session.
The TSX lost 111.47 points to open Friday at 35,493.80. On the week so far, the index has lost 126 points, or 0.35%.
The Canadian dollar fell 0.41 cents at 70.92 cents U.S.
The government trimmed its budget deficit forecasts for every fiscal year until 2030/31 and said 2027 growth would be slightly less than initially expected.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada said employment was little changed in October (-4,700; 0.0%) and the unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.7%.
Elsewhere, the IVEY PMI index decreased to 58.3 in October from 58.2 in September and 52.4 in October 2025
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange nosed ahead 0.12 points to 806.44. The index has eked ahead two points, or 0.33%, since last Friday.
Seven of the 12 subgroups lost ground, weighed most by industrials, off 1.2%, real-estate, off 0.6%, and financials, down 0.5%.
The five gainers were led by health-care, up 1.8%, gold, better by 1%, and information technology, progressing 0.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
The NASDAQ Composite rebounded on Friday as some investors bought the dip in chip stocks following a punishing selloff that sent the index into correction territory.
The Dow Jones Industrial index removed 0.41 points to open Friday at 51,522.65.
The S&P 500 index recovered 78.94 points, or 1.1%, to 7,432.62.
The tech-heavy NASDAQ staged a comeback 439.78 points, or 1.8%, to 24,764.77.
Moderna shares rallied nearly 10%. The company smashed third-quarter earnings and estimates and raised its outlook for full-year sales growth. Moderna now expects 2026 revenue growth of 15% to 25%, up from previous guidance of no more than 10%.
Worries of a potential slowdown in data center construction following big Democratic wins in the House and Senate and key state governorships hit U.S. markets hard on Thursday.
The heavy selling Thursday sent the three major stock averages to their worst one-day losses since April 2025. The NASDAQ Composite tumbled 5.5%, closing more than 10% below its most recent high and putting it in what Wall Street regards as a correction. The broad-market S&P 500 lost 4.4%, while the Dow fell more than 1,800 points, or 3.4%.
Top Democrats have called for the curbing of the data center buildout since the party’s big election win. Governor-Elect Gina Hinojosa of Texas, a key data center hub in the country, said in a CNN interview Thursday evening, “We will have laws to protect Texans, and we need to stop what we are doing with data centers until we have those protections.”
Investors reacted to the latest nonfarm payrolls report, which came in much better than expected at an increase of 165,000 in October.
That was well above the 59,000 that economists polled by Dow Jones had anticipated. The unemployment rate also moved down to 4.1%. Economists had expected it to hold steady at 4.2%.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury slid, raising yields to 4.87% from Wednesday’s 4.84%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices poked ahead 11 cents to $90.63 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices flopped $55.00 to $4,058.50 U.S. an ounce.
