TSX weighed down by resource stocks

“It’s the same story all year. Energy and materials are a drag and that’s why the TSX continues to underperform,” said Craig Jerusalim, portfolio manager of Canadian equities at CIBC Asset Management.

The TSX is down more than 206 points this week since trading resumed on Tuesday following the holiday weekend.

Seemingly positive jobs data released Friday did little to assuage markets after Statistics Canada reported the labour force expanded by 22,200 jobs last month.

While the numbers helped nudge the unemployment rate to a nine-year low of 6.2%, the August growth was fuelled by less-desirable work as the economy added 110,400 part-time jobs and shed 88,100 full-time positions.

“You have to read between the lines,” said Jerusalim. “The fundamentals behind that 22,200 jobs increase was not encouraging.”

Another story capturing headlines was credit monitoring company Equifax, which saw its shares plunge after it disclosed a data breach that affects 143 million Americans, including an unspecified number of Canadians.

Equifax, which hit all-time highs last month, took its biggest one-day loss since 1999, tumbling US$19.49, or 13.7%, to US$123.23.

Jerusalim says cyber security is a topic that’s keeping bank CEOs up at night.

“It’s top of mind. … There’s real dollars being spent to protect the banks,” he said, adding that efforts are being focused on how to contain problems.

“Every bank is going to be hacked at some point,” he said. “So if someone gets into your system, don’t let them take your data.

“Companies need to be preemptively investing in the protection of their data and costs as a result are going to be going up for all organizations,” he added.

South of the border, major New York indexes were mixed as hurricane Irma continues to be a going concern as it spins toward Florida for what could be a catastrophic blow this weekend.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index inched down 3.67 points to 2,461.43 and the Nasdaq composite index gave back 37.68 points to 6,360.19. The Dow Jones industrial average added 13.01 points to 21,797.79.

In commodities news, the October crude contract dropped sharply, skidding $1.61 to US$47.48 per barrel.

“With energy, there’s a lot of noise in around oil prices given the strain supply demand fundamentals happening as a result of Harvey and now Irma,” said Jerusalim.

“But it’s also a little bit of trader skittishness exacerbating the problem. If you look at oil over the last number of quarters, it’s been in a relatively tight band. … It’s had a hard time cracking or staying above $50 US for any extended period of time this year.”

In currency markets, the loonie continued its ascent, capping off a sixth straight day of gains.

The Canadian dollar was trading at an average price of US82.43¢, up 0.11 of a U.S. cent.

Elsewhere in commodities, the October natural gas contract was down US9¢ to US$2.89 per mmBTU while the December gold contract added US90¢ to US$1,351.20 an ounce.

The December copper contract lost US10 at US$3.04 a pound.