The Toronto stock market looked to move higher Friday after impressive numbers on Canadian jobs and solid gains in the United States provided some optimism about the state of the domestic economy.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.62 of a cent at 91.21 cents US, before stock markets opened.

Statistics Canada said 43,000 net new jobs were added in March. Most of the new jobs were part-time positions, and the vast majority of the new jobs went to young Canadians, the agency said.

The figure pushed the Canadian unemployment rate one tenth of a point lower to 6.9 per cent.

A separate U.S. jobs report showed that American employers added 192,000 jobs in March, but the U.S. unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.7 per cent.

Wall Street futures were mixed after the figures. The Dow Jones industrial futures were up 62 points at 16,563 while the S&P 500 futures were ahead eight points to 1,891.

The March jobs numbers were slightly below February’s total of 197,000.

One of the brightest spots in the report was a revision by the U.S. Labor Department of its January and February numbers _ adding 37,000 more jobs to the period than was originally estimated.

The Toronto stock market closed at 14,402.21 Thursday after losing 56.90 points, with most major sectors showing weakness. Even still, Canada’s main stock index has risen nearly six per cent since the start of the year and sits near levels that haven’t been seen since the summer of 2008.

Prices for major commodities were up early Friday. Oil continued to rise after closing above US$100 a barrel on Thursday. May crude contracts advanced 58 cents to US$101.87 a barrel, May copper contracts gained 2.4 cents to US$3.05 a pound while June bullion gained US$14.70 to US$1,299.30 an ounce.

European bourses were generally up Friday. London’s FTSE 100 index was ahead 0.52 per cent, Frankfurt’s DAX advanced 0.49 per cent and the Paris CAC 40 gained 0.48 per cent.

In Asia, market indexes were mixed. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.5 per cent per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.24 per cent but China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.75 per cent.