Canada’s main index climbed on Friday and was on track to end the week higher aided by utility stocks, while investors assessed the domestic and U.S. data showing signs of strength in the labour market.
The TSX Composite surged 66.17 points to moved into Friday afternoon at 20,937.52.
The Canadian dollar moved higher 0.15 cents to 75.03 cents U.S.
Shares of First Quantum Minerals gave up earlier gains and shed 15 cents, or 1.2%, to $12.90, after Reuters reported the Canadian miner is in talks to sell a stake in its Zambian copper mines to Chinese state-owned Jiangxi Copper Corp. %.
Services of wireless carrier Rogers Communications were briefly disrupted for more than 55,000 users in Toronto on Thursday due to a technical issue. Rogers shares gained 56 cents, or 1%, to $62.73.
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 put out its December PMI report. The index rose to 56.3 in December 2023, after a jump of 54.7 in November, and 49.3 in December 2022.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 2.09 points to 549.47.
Eight of the 12 subgroups gained by noon hour, with health-care surging 0.8%, with energy and information technology each improving 0.6%.
The four laggards were weighed by industrials and consumer discretionary stocks, down 0.2%, while gold slid 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks bounced a bit on Friday as traders tried to shake an early 2024 sell-off amid conflicting economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrials maintained gains 15.1 points to pause for lunch Friday at 37,555.44.
The S&P 500 picked up 15.96 points to 4,704.64.
The NASDAQ jumped 54.26 points to 14,564.56.24, after five straight negative sessions.
The U.S. economy added many more jobs than anticipated in December, with non-farm payrolls growing by 216,000. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a gain of 170,000 for last month. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7% in another sign of continued labour strength.
A strong labour market could mean that the Fed might potentially delay the first of its rate cuts, which traders have been eagerly anticipating. Before the strong data hit Friday, traders were hoping the Fed would start cutting rates as early as March and lower them by as many as six times in 2024. Those expectations will need to be dialed back after Friday’s report.
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 2.7%. The S&P 500 is off 1.1%, while the Dow is listing lower 0.5%.
While December’s ISM services index represented that business activity is still overall expanding in the economy, the reading of 50.6% was nearly two full percentage points below the Dow Jones consensus estimate of 52.5% and November’s 52.7% level. A reading above 40% marks the threshold for economic growth.
One other factor weighing on the market in the new year is the cooling off of large-cap tech stocks like Apple, which has been downgraded by two research shops this week.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury fell, raising yields back to Thursday’s 4%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices took on $1.69 to $73.88 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices piled on $8.50 to $2,058.50.