Canadian stocks gained for an eighth day, with the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index heading for its longest rising streak in seven months, after the U.S. reported a higher-than-forecast increase in private-sector employment.
The S&P TSX Composite Index ended Friday’s up 33.83 points to 12,144.92, a leap on the week of 265.20 points or 2.2%.
Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s third-largest insurer, advanced 39 cents or 3.2% to $13.25 as U.S. businesses added to their payrolls for an eighth straight month.
Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-biggest gold producer by market value, fell $1.78 or 3.9% to $44.40, after agreeing to buy Andean Resources Ltd. for about $3.6 billion. Andean shares, for their part, leaped $2.16 or 44.9% to $6.97.
Linamar Corp., Canada’s second-largest auto-parts maker, soared $1.58 or 8.7% to $19.70 after U.S. auto sales topped forecasts.
Other gold producers declined as the U.S. employment statistics reduced demand for precious metals as a haven. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer, lost 56 cents or 1.2% to $47.05. Osisko Mining Corp., which explores for gold in Quebec, slumped 48 cents or 3.5% to $13.25.
Auto-parts makers Magna International Inc. rose along with Linamar, after U.S. auto sales in August did not drop as much as forecast, according to Steve Arthur, an analyst at Royal Bank of Canada.
Magna, Canada’s biggest auto-parts maker, gained 98 cents or 1.1% from a two-year high to $88.90 in its first day of trading after the almost $976.2-million buyout of founder Frank Stronach’s Class B shares.
Producers of raw materials used in industry rallied as copper futures gained. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest base-metals and coal producer, rose 91 cents or 2.4% to $39.69, stretching its weekly advance to 13%.
Copper producer Quadra FNX Mining Ltd increased for a sixth day, the longest streak in 11 months, climbing 34 cents or 2.7% to $13.
The Canadian dollar rocketed up 1.33 cents to 96.30 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but three of the 14 TSX subgroups ended the day positive. Financials prospered 1.3%, while industrials and the metals and mining advanced 0.7% each.
The three laggards were weighed mostly by gold’s 1% slide, while materials and health-care issues fell back 0.7% each.
The TSX Venture Exchange added 34.73 points to 1,565.96, while the Nasdaq Canada index picked up 8.34 points to 574.54. The Venture Exchange, incidentally, gained 77.11 points or 5.2% on the week.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks rose near session highs late Friday, with the Dow ending higher for the fourth day in a row, as investors welcomed a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market.
The Dow Jones industrial average bounced higher 127.83 points, or 1.2%, to 10,447.93. For the first time since early August, the big board was a winner on the week, garnering 297.28 points or 2.9%.
The S&P 500 index grew 14.41 points on the day to 1,104.51, taking on 39.92 points or 3.7% over the last five trading days. The tech-rich Nasdaq composite index bounced 19.99 points on the day to 2,220, picking up 80.12 points on the week, or 3.7%.
Caterpillar and Boeing led gainers on the Dow, in what has been a good week for industrial names. But shares of consumer-linked stocks Coca Cola and McDonalds weighed on the blue-chip index.
Telecom companies AT&T and Verizon were weak, while IBM added about 2%.
In addition to stocks, investors gravitated towards higher yielding currencies such as the euro and Canadian dollar. European stock markets also rallied.
Meanwhile, yields on U.S. Treasury bonds and notes rose as demand for safe-haven assets waned. Gold prices fell.
Economically speaking, the U.S. government's widely anticipated jobs report showed that the U.S. economy lost jobs for a third straight month in August, but employers cut fewer positions than economists had forecast.
The economy lost 54,000 last month. That compared to 131,000 jobs shed in July. Economists were expecting employers to slash 121,000 positions in August.
The private sector added 67,000, beating economists' expectations for a gain of 44,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 9.6%, from 9.5% in July, in line with expectations.
Meanwhile, economists forecast the Institute for Supply Management's services index to have slipped to 53 in August from 54.3 in July.
Treasury prices fell sharply, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to 2.71% from 2.63% Thursday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil stumbled 68 cents to $74.34 U.S.
Gold prices skidded five dollars to $1,248 U.S. an ounce.
