Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market made modest gains early Thursday on slightly higher oil prices and a low volume of overall trading, with little direction to come from south of the border as U.S. markets are shuttered for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The S&P/ TSX composite index gained 20.5 points to 12,922.5 and the TSX Venture Exchange gained 4.67 points to 2,028.23.

Trading is typically light in Toronto when the major New York markets are closed.

The Canadian dollar added 0.07 cents to 98.97 cents US even as the U.S. dollar made gains against European currencies, which are being hammered over fear of debt contagion sparked by the unveiling of harsh austerity measures in Ireland.

The January crude contract was up 44 cents at US$84.30 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The December gold contract fell $1.10 to $1371.90.

Investors are digesting a Statistics Canada report that showed stronger average weekly earnings in September — the second straight month with year-over-year growth over 4%.

Non-farm payrolls were up 4.3% from a year earlier to $864.13. The pace of growth in earnings has been increasing in recent months.

That could be good news for retailers heading into the crucial holiday sales period and could further influence the Bank of Canada to consider raising interest rates sooner rather than later following reports of growing inflation and retail sales earlier this week.

Energy stocks gained on the higher oil prices with shares of Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU) up 24 cents to $34.62.

The financial sector was also trading higher in advance of fourth-quarter earnings from Canada’s big five banks slated for release next week. Shares in Royal Bank (TSX:RBC) were up 11 cents to $55.07.

On Wednesday, the TSX jumped 108.24 points to 12,901.99 and on a resurgence in commodity prices that had been beaten down earlier in the week over economic and political fears.

The boost came mostly from figures Wednesday showing a sharp drop in weekly U.S. jobless claims and encouraging consumer confidence figures ahead of the crucial Christmas shopping season.

Global stocks continued their rally Thursday following upbeat U.S. unemployment figures but the euro remained near two-month lows amid concerns that Europe’s debt crisis could soon embroil Portugal or, more dangerously, Spain.

The Foreign Ministers of France and Germany expressed confidence that their nations would be able to provide swift assistance for Ireland, as they did earlier this year for Greece.

They said that Dublin’s latest austerity measures would help shore up confidence in the euro. At the same time, they warned that the European Union needs better policies to pre-empt other countries from spiralling into crisis, alongside mechanisms to intervene once a crisis occurs.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index gained 0.3%, while Germany’s DAX added 2%, and France’s CAC-40 was 0.5% higher.