Stocks in Canada’s greatest market rose shortly after the open on Friday as gold and energy stocks led broad gains.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 54.16 points to begin Friday at 15,450.86
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.05 cents at 72.67 cents U.S.
Air Canada reported a quarterly loss that was much smaller than expected, as it flew more passengers, offseting a sharp rise in fuel costs.
Air Canada got lift of 75 cents, or 5.9%, to $13.54.
Husky Energy Inc on Friday posted a quarterly profit that edged past analysts' estimates, helped by higher oil prices.
Husky shares were unchanged at $15.58.
Home Capital Group Inc named Alan Hibben to its board of directors, replacing Gerald Soloway, who has been accused by regulators of making "materially misleading statements" to investors.
Home Capital shares added 62 cents, or 10.6%, to $6.63.
RBC raised the rating on Bonavista Energy to outperform from sector perform. Bonavista Energy boosted 21 cents, or 8.1%, to $2.80.
Barclays raised the rating on Empire Company to overweight from equal weight. Empire, parent company of Sobeys, saw its stock go up three cents to $21.32.
Canaccord Genuity raised the target price Theratechnologies to $7.50 with a speculative buy rating. Theratechnologies shares dropped a penny to $6.82.
In the economic docket, Statistics Canada reported Friday morning that employment was little changed in April, while the unemployment rate declined 0.2 percentage points to 6.5%, the lowest rate since October 2008.
The agency attributed the decrease mostly to fewer young people searching for work.
Western University’s IVEY School of Business came out with another positive Purchasing Managers Index for April. The index jumped last month to 62.4, compared to 61.1 in March and 53.1 in April 2016. The survey of purchasing managers asks them if their purchases increased, decreased or stayed the same during the month. Any reading over 50 signals expansion; below 50, contraction.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 0.85 points to 774.92
All but two of 12 TSX subgroups trod in positive ground in the first hour of trading, as gold soared 1.4%, energy gushed 1.1%, and materials hiked 1%.
The two laggards were health-care, down 0.4%, and information technology, off 0.1%
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities kicked off Friday's session mostly higher as Wall Street pored over key employment data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 26.01 points to 20.925.46, as a fall in IBM shares pressured the index.
The S&P 500 gained 2.55 points to 2,392.05
The NASDAQ nicked ahead 0.98 points to 6,076.31, within striking distance of its all-time intraday high.
In corporate news, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett sold a third of his IBM stake, or 81 million shares, sending the stock down more than 3%.
The U.S. economy added 211,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate fell to 4.4%. Economists expected jobs growth of 185,000 and for the unemployment rate to hit 4.5%.
Average hourly wages, meanwhile, rose 0.3%.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell, raising yields to 2.37% from Thursday’s 2.35%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gathered 40 cents at $45.92 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices were negative 70 cents at $1,227.90 U.S. an ounce.
