Stocks Soar on Week’s Last Session
Equities in Canada’s biggest market opened higher on Friday, mirroring Wall Street gains, as a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report and signs of easing trade tensions between Washington and China fueled investor optimism.
The TSX Composite Index took flight 153.98 points to open Friday at 26,496.27.
The Canadian dollar lost 0.05 cents to 73.12 cents U.S.
This week, U.S. President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on imports on steel and aluminum; Canada is the largest seller of the metals to the U.S.
Federal Industry Minister Melanie Joly said on Thursday that Prime Minister Mark Carney and Trump are in direct communication as part of Ottawa's bid to persuade Washington to lift tariffs.
Meanwhile, a highly-anticipated phone call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, which Trump said led to "a very positive conclusion," offered hope the trade war between the world's two largest economies might start to de-escalate.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported Friday the economy created a mere 8,000 jobs last month, raising the unemployment rate 0.1% percentage points to 7.0%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange recovered 1.74 points to 720.01.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher, as energy spurted 1.4%, information technology clicked 1.3% higher, and financials, richer by 0.8%.
The five laggards were weighed most by gold, down 1.1%, materials, descending 0.7%, and telecoms, off 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks jumped Friday after the latest non-farm payrolls data came in better than expected, easing concern the economy faces an imminent slowdown.
The Dow Jones Industrials ballooned 522.26 points, or 1.2%, to 42,842.
The S&P index recovered 67.98 points, or 1.2%, to 6,007.28, touching the 6,000 level for the first time since February.
The NASDAQ Composite shot ahead 245.69 points, or 1.3%, to 19,544.12.
The market’s move higher was supported by a more than 3% gain in Tesla. Shares of the electric vehicle maker weighed on the market Thursday, tumbling 14%, as CEO Elon Musk sparred with President Donald Trump on social media. Other major tech-related names such as Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Apple also traded higher on the day.
Those gains came after U.S. payrolls climbed 139,000 in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, above the Dow Jones forecast of 125,000 for the month but less than the downwardly revised 147,000 in
A series of data released earlier this week signaled a possible economic slowdown, raising questions about the impact of the multi-front tariff negotiations and the next steps for the Federal Reserve, which next meets to set interest rate policy on June 17-18.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury fell, hiking yields to 4.46% from Thursday’s 4.40%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gushed 79 cents to $64.16 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slumped $31.70 to $3,343.40 U.S. an ounce.
