Equities in Canada’s largest market opened higher on Friday on gains in energy and material stocks, while data showing that unemployment rate fell to a record low in March cemented the case for bigger interest rate hikes by the central bank next week.
The TSX Composite Index gained 25 points to kick off the week’s last session at 21,859.89.
The Canadian dollar sank 0.16 cents to 79.28 cents U.S.
The Globe and Mail reported Shopify has introduced changes to its employees’ compensation packages, giving them more flexibility between cash and stock components.
Shopify shares plummeted $41.60, or 5.1%, to $769.52.
National Bank of Canada initiated coverage on Copperleaf Technologies with an outperform rating and a price target of $20.00.
Copperleaf closed Thursday at $15.36.
CIBC cut the rating on Diversified Royalty to neutral from outperform. Diversified shares fell four cents, or 1.2%, to $3.19.
CIBC cut the target price on Victoria Gold to $21.00 from $23.00. Victoria Gold shares grabbed a penny to $15.30.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported the economy 73,000 jobs in March. The unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 5.3%, the lowest rate on record since comparable data became available in 1976.
Experts had called for the addition of 80,000 jobs last month after posting a massive addition of 336,600 jobs in February.
In the federal budget, the Liberals put red-hot real estate markets squarely in their sights on Thursday, laying out a budget geared at boosting housing affordability amid soaring inflation, while promising modest new spending to encourage medium-term growth.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange inched ahead 0.54 points to 886.87.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were gainers in the first hour, led by gold, up 1.1%, materials, stronger 0.9%, and real-estate, up 0.7%.
The five laggards were anchored most by information technology, down 1.7%, while industrials shed 1.1%, and health-care, off 0.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks slipped on Friday and the market headed for a losing week as investors braced for tighter monetary policy from the Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones Industrials dipped 48.88 points to 34,534.69.
The S&P 500 moved lower 22.34 points to 4,477.87
The NASDAQ Composite slid 188 points, or 1.4%, to 13,709.30.
Despite a mild rebound Thursday, the major averages were headed for weekly declines. The S&P 500 declined 1%, and the NASDAQ was down 2.6%, for the week through Thursday’s close.
The Dow was down 0.7% week to date. Those losses would mark the first weekly losses for the S&P 500 and NASDAQ in four weeks. Meanwhile, the Dow is headed for back-to-back weekly declines.
The losses have been driven by a change of tone by the Federal Reserve, signaling it will act even more aggressively to fight inflation.
Tech stocks dipped on Friday as investors dumped the riskier shares in anticipation of higher interest rates limiting the group’s future profit growth.
Chipmakers like Nvidia and Micron, which have struggled amid supply chain shortages and concerns of a looming recession, dipped 2% while shares of Tesla, Alphabet, and Apple inched 1% lower.
UPS and Union Pacific both fell about 1% on the back of a downgrade from Bank of America citing concerns about weakening demand and declining prices in the industry.
The health-care and consumer staples sectors rallied this week as investors worried about a slowing economy pivoted toward stocks with stable earnings. Walmart and UnitedHealth Group inched higher again on Friday.
Treasury prices fell as yields increased to 2.69%, from Thursday’s 2.65%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices forged ahead 13 cents to $96.16 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices added $3.70 to $1,941.50 U.S. an ounce.