Stronger than expected jobs data and a slight uptick in the price of oil pushed Canada’s main stock index and the loonie to a higher close Friday.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index added 50.12 points to 15,473.21, led by the energy and financials sectors.
Energy stocks on the TSX were up 1.95%, while financials stocks climbed 1.1%.
The average value for the Canadian dollar was 74.33¢ US, up 0.27 of a cent from Thursday.
The gains came as Statistics Canada reported that the labour market added 54,400 jobs in May, with full-time positions surging by 77,000, more than making up for the decline of 22,300 part-time jobs.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate rose by 0.1 of a percentage point to 6.6% as more people entered the job market.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 89.44 points to a new record of 21,271.97. The S&P 500 index retreated 2.02 points to 2,431.77 and the Nasdaq composite index gave back 113.84 points to 6,207.92.
Chief market analyst Colin Cieszynski of CMC Markets Canada said investors are breathing a sigh of relief after former FBI director James Comey’s testimony Thursday.
“He didn’t say anything to suggest that anybody is going to be able to come up with a way to impeach Trump,” Cieszynski said.
“The markets took that as a positive sign because usually past impeachment processes have been terrible for stock markets. When they went after Clinton the market went down 20% and when they went after Nixon the market went down 40%.”
The July crude contract was up US19¢ at US$45.83 per barrel and the July natural gas contract added US1¢ to US$3.04 per mmBTU.
The August gold contract was down US$8.10 to US$1,271.40 an ounce and the July copper contract rose US4¢ at US$2.65 a pound.