Canada’s main stock index hit a record high on Friday, led by technology shares, as a more-than-expected rise in the domestic unemployment rate boosted bets for a hefty Bank of Canada interest rate cut next week.
The TSX gained 84.67 points to pause for lunch Friday at 25,764.71.
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.6 cents to 70.71 cents U.S.
In corporate news, Wheaton Precious Metals announced the acquisition of a gold stream from Allied Gold’s Kurmuk project. Wheaton shares took on 23 cents to $88.53, while Allied grabbed 70 cents, or 2%, to $3.50.
Among sectors, information technology led the gains, boosted by a jump of $8.77, or 5.5%, in e-commerce firm Shopify, which greeted noon EST at $168.85.
The heavyweight financials sector rose buoyed by Laurentian Bank jumping $1.29, or 4.5%, to $30.31, after exceeding quarterly profit estimates, and Bank of Montreal gaining $5.37, or 3.8%, to $145.10 following an upgrade by CIBC.
Economically speaking, Statistics Canada says the economy created 51,000 (+0.2%) in November. The unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 6.8%, as more people looked for work.
Also, the IVEY PMI nicked ahead to 52.3 in November, from 52 in October, well off the 54.7 reading of November 2023.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faded 0.39 points to 607.90.
The 12 TSX subgroups were evenly divided by noon hour, with information technology, surging 2.1%, consumer discretionary, ahead 0.7%, and industrials, better by 0.5%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by 1.9%, while utilities and communications each dropping 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose after November jobs data came in slightly better than expected on Friday, but not so hot as to deter the Federal Reserve from cutting rates again later this month.
The Dow Jones Industrial index declined by noon 30.86 points to 44,816.37
The S&P 500 gained 14.1 points to 6,089.21
The NASDAQ Composite surged 115.64 points to 19,816.37. Both the 500-stock S&P and the tech-heavy NASDAQ hit new intraday highs.
The November labor report, released on Friday morning, revealed that nonfarm payrolls increased by 227,000 in November, above the Dow Jones estimate of 214,000 and marking a huge hike from October’s gain of just 12,000. The unemployment rate nudged up to 4.2%, as expected.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury hiked, lowering yields to 4.16% from Thursday’s 4.18%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lost 95 cents to $67.35U.S. a barrel.
Prices for gold regained $13.40 an ounce to $2,661.80 0 U.S.
